Thu, 20 May 2004 21:46:31
Playing tricks with the law
Obviously, I support full and equal marriage rights for gay people. When I saw this story, though, I thought I was going to have to agree with Romney on this.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday asked the state’s top prosecutor to look at whether clerks in a handful of communities broke the law by issuing marriage licenses this week to gay couples from out of state.
...
Romney said he would leave it up to Reilly to determine what action, if any, was needed against clerks found to be breaking state law.
Citing a 1913 law originally meant to bar interracial marriage, Romney has said licenses issued to out-of-state gay couples who do not plan to settle in Massachusetts would be “void.” But clerks in Springfield, Provincetown, Somerville and Worcester have said they would ignore Romney’s edict.
Well, that’s not good. I mean, bottom line is, the law is not intended to penalize gay people, but rather protect Mass by encouraging those who would legally marry in the state to settle there. I can dig that. A law is a law, and you have to change it if you think it sucks.
But wait…
Mary Bonauto, lead attorney in the lawsuit that did away with the state’s ban on gay marriage, urged Reilly not to comply with Romney’s request and noted that the 1913 statute had not been enforced for heterosexual couples from out of state.
“Massachusetts is not permitted to have different rules for non-residents based on whether they’re straight or gay,” she told Reuters.
See, now, why you gotta play games with the law? If you haven’t enforced this law for straight people, you have essentially given up your “right” to enforce it at all, IMHO. And I’ll bet if this goes any further, that will be the legal opinion as well.
You can’t let everyone slide, and then one day say “Oh, wait, the gays are doing it? Oh, the hell with that, let’s enforce that archaic and never-used law to put a stop to gay people formally announcing their intentions to remain devoted and faithful as a couple!”
I call shenanigans on Governor Romney.
Posted by JimK at 09:46 PM on May 20, 2004
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Categories: The Stupidity Of Man, Politics
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