Wednesday, April 28, 2004
So, the same sex marriage license applications issued by the state will have address sections that must be filled out with proof of address provided. Word is that even if only one partner is from out of state, the license will be denied. Unless the infamous 1913 law gets repealed before too much longer (legislation to repeal it is supposedly before the legislature now) we may not get a legal marriage in Massachusetts, although we'll go ahead with the Quaker ceremony in August anyway.
I am asuming that the way the license application form is now constructed shuts down the civil disobediance planned by Provincetown and Worcester (ie. grant the licenses without asking for proof of Massachusetts residence because both towns thought that discriminatory). After I thought about it for a day or two, it struck me what strange bedfellows Provincetown and Worcester are--one of the premiere hot and hip gay gathering places of the nation, and a working class city that has had temendous economic difficulties with the collapse of domestic manufacturing and that has reinvented itself step by painful step using all the strength it could muster from a traditional family, political and religious heritage. Bless them both, they were willing to try.
And so are Fritz and I. We will go ahead and seek a license. Should all else fail, I plan to fall back on my wits and smart-ass sensibility that have served me so well all my life; I will simply say, "Of course we aren't at the same address now--I was born and raised strictly Catholic. You don't imagine we would live together and have sex BEFORE the wedding, do you?"
I am asuming that the way the license application form is now constructed shuts down the civil disobediance planned by Provincetown and Worcester (ie. grant the licenses without asking for proof of Massachusetts residence because both towns thought that discriminatory). After I thought about it for a day or two, it struck me what strange bedfellows Provincetown and Worcester are--one of the premiere hot and hip gay gathering places of the nation, and a working class city that has had temendous economic difficulties with the collapse of domestic manufacturing and that has reinvented itself step by painful step using all the strength it could muster from a traditional family, political and religious heritage. Bless them both, they were willing to try.
And so are Fritz and I. We will go ahead and seek a license. Should all else fail, I plan to fall back on my wits and smart-ass sensibility that have served me so well all my life; I will simply say, "Of course we aren't at the same address now--I was born and raised strictly Catholic. You don't imagine we would live together and have sex BEFORE the wedding, do you?"
