Happy Anniversary!

Not that I have anything unique or especially profound to say about this, but as a proud citizen of the bluest state, the People's Republic of Massachusetts, I have to recognize this historic anniversary. It's been one year since lesbians and gay men could be legally married in this state. I know that the CW is that our godless Supreme Judicial Court and the sodomite legions they inspired cost John Kerry the election, but I know better -- it was his cowardly, hypocritical vote to authorize the Iraq war and his self-contradictory, gonadless flailing about as he tried to explain exactly what he believed about it and how, if at all, his policy on the war was different from the policy of Napoleon the Wonderchimp.

Meanwhile, something amazing happened in Massachusetts, i.e., not much. People got married. That's all. They are happy. Their kids are happy. They can talk more freely and less awkwardly about their lives with coworkers and their children no longer have to hide in the shadows. Their families and friends have had the opportunity to share their commitment to each other and the important life passage that it represents, just as they have had with their other relatives and friends.

Revere Beach has not turned into Fire Island. The sacred insititution of marriage is still there, same as always. Heterosexual couples are -- miraculously! Glory to God! -- completely unaffected. Boiling lava has not rained down from the sky. True, a lot of Catholic parishes have closed and the rest of the pews are half empty, but that's not because people are getting married. It's mostly because all those priests were raping children, which used to be legal for them, for all practical purposes. (It's true! Ordained clergy and lay church officials were not required to report child abuse to the authorities, thanks to determined lobbying by the Catholic Church over many decades. Oh yeah, we changed that law also.)

Many presumably well meaning people have argued that it was a mistake to win this victory in the courts, because the policy is ahead of public opinion and it has just created a powerful political backlash. Clearly it has in much of the country but the opposite has happened here. At first, the majority of Massachusettsians (we don't really have a word for ourselves. Massachusoids? Chusers?) told pollsters they were opposed, and the legislature took the first of two votes required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot overruling the court. But then that funny thing happened -- i.e., nothing much -- and the mood changed. Most of us now think things are fine the way they are, legislators who ran for reelection based on their opposition to gay marriage lost to their pro-gay marriage opponents, and it is now very unlikely that the constitutional amendment will appear on the ballot. If it does, it will be defeated.

So how does God feel about the whole thing? So far, he's treated us just fine, except for a big snowstorm last January and a cool spring. It seems to be Florida he's beating up on, for some reason. You'll have to ask him what that is.