Proud to be from Massachusetts

Thanks to a vote yesterday in our Legislature, the right of gay people to marry in our fair Commonwealth has been preserved.

A few years back, our Supreme Judicial Court declared it unconstitutional to disallow homosexuals to marry. Since then 1) gay folks who want to have been getting hitched here, and 2) people who perceive themselves, or civilization in general, to be somehow threatened by that have had their panties in a bunch. A petition was formed to amend our state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Amending the constitution requires a vote of the populace, but before that happens, the Legislature representing the populace decides whether it should go to popular vote. Yesterday our Legislature decided, rightly in my view, not to have that happen.

So, good. Civil rights aren't properly decided by majority opinion. Period.

My preference would be to have government out of the marriage business entirely. Have the state recognize a "civil union" contract between any unrelated, consenting adult couple who wants one, and leave "marriage" to religious organizations. In the meantime though, I'm proud to live in a state that recognizes that disallowing gay people to marry is wrong.