Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 9, same-sex weddings will begin in the District of Columbia after more than a hundred couples lined up last Wednesday to get their marriage licenses and start the three-day waiting period. Washington, D.C. became the sixth United States jurisdiction to allow same-sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Five other states (California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington) offer marriage-equivalent relationships for same-sex couples, while Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin all provide certain limited rights and benefits to same-sex couples who register with the state.
At this point, nearly half of all American citizens live in a place where there is some sort of recognition of same-sex relationships, whether it's marriage, marriage-equivalent, marriage-lite, or simply the recognition of marriages performed in other states. Given how much confusion is created by the federal government's failure to recognize any of these relationships, we can only hope that a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be coming soon.
Five other states (California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington) offer marriage-equivalent relationships for same-sex couples, while Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin all provide certain limited rights and benefits to same-sex couples who register with the state.
At this point, nearly half of all American citizens live in a place where there is some sort of recognition of same-sex relationships, whether it's marriage, marriage-equivalent, marriage-lite, or simply the recognition of marriages performed in other states. Given how much confusion is created by the federal government's failure to recognize any of these relationships, we can only hope that a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be coming soon.
