Weddings & Marriage

I've been on my pseudo-honeymoon this week - have spent the last two days cleaning out and shredding paper from as far back as 1998 (fun!). The Husband and I are finally going forward on some "light" renovation of our apartment - new carpeting/flooring and new painting.

I finally got a chance to get back online (off of work all week - woo-hoo!) and was going to post about my wedding on Sunday and what fun I had with the Pobble.

But then I read this and the thought of going on about my wedding and marriage made me feel a little ill.

What is happening? The Husband (really feel weird writing that) and I finally decided to get married after 9 years of dating (8 living together) because we realized we are getting older and while we were registered through my job as a domestic partnership, we lacked the rights spouses have over one another. If something happened to him and he was hospitalized, I'd have no right to make any decisions regarding his care and vice versa. Now that we are married, we're in this new club with all its rights and privileges.

But are we any better than either of the gay couples who were wonderful enough to attend our wedding ceremony? Why are we afforded rights they aren't just because they happen to be gay? It's even more heartbreaking that this decision happened here, in New York - the birthplace of the Gay Rights movement. Georgia, I understand. But New York? Hello? Stonewall, anyone? I read about these couples and I just don't understand why they have to be denied the right to the same protections I have.

I could rant on and on about the majority opinion but I think I'll just end with a quote from Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye who wrote the minority opinion: "I am confident that future generations will look back on today's decision as an unfortunate misstep."