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Starting A New, Exciting Life! :)


Areala

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  • Retromags Curator

So I've been pretty quiet around here as of late but now I can't help but get on here and gab. On Wednesday, June 25th at around 2pm, Indiana legalized same-sex marriage. And at roughly 7:40pm that very same day, I exchanged vows with my girlfriend in front of the county clerk. Long story short, I am now Mrs. Areala and I'm still reeling from the happiness and emotions of it all. :)

I met my wife (wow, does it feel funny to write that instead of 'girlfriend' or 'partner'...) back in college, we began dating shortly thereafter, and have spent the years between then and Tuesday wearing engagement rings. Ten years ago, it seemed like this day would never come, and now that it's here I'm still kind of in shock. It was very much a spur-of-the-moment thing on our parts, even though we've been wanted to get married for years, but we had the opportunity and decided to jump on it before that door closed again. Even if our state later refuses to recognize our marriage (the attorney general and governor have made it clear they intend to appeal the court's ruling), the federal government and many other states will honour it. :)

So I just wanted to say, thank you to all of my friends here who have been such an important part of my life over the last several years. I wanted to share my happiness with all of you. :)

*huggles*
Areala

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  • Retromags Curator

And for anybody wondering why we jumped on this as fast as we did, two hours after I wrote my first post here, our state attorney general went to a federal court in Illinois and filed a motion for a stay on the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses. The court approved, and same-sex couples are currently no longer allowed to wed and clerks are no longer allowed to grant licenses in the state until they hear otherwise.

It's heartening to know that with our state on track to eclipse last year's homicide statistics by a wide margin, the attorney general is focusing his attention on the real issue plaguing our cities, ain't it? :)

*huggles*
Areala

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  • Retromags Curator

Congrats! It's nice to see your country come around to its senses, even if it's slow like a snail.

I wasn't sure how I felt when Canada legalized same-sex marriage in 2005 through the Civil Marriage Act, but after a while I got a new understanding on life and am glad that it happened. Everyone deserves to be miserable :lol:. It's a shame your federal government doesn't have the same sort of authority to mandate something like that federally that the states have to follow.

Hopefully Indiana smartens up and realizes that this is inevitable, and they just leave it be so that everyone can enjoy the same things.

Congrats again!

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  • Retromags Curator

Thank you all for the congratulations! :)

E-Day, the federal government does have the authority to mandate a law, but such a mandate must come from the Supreme Court, which means that one or more states have to challenge their own state's law banning same-sex marriage up to that court's level, the judges on the SC have to decide to hear the case, and then make a ruling. Given the inertia of public opinion, I don't expect this to be an issue for much longer. Presented strictly as a matter of law, there's no precedent for discriminating against consenting gay couples any more than there was a precedent for discriminating against consenting couples of different races who wanted to marry before the court struck down the anti-miscegenation laws in 1967. :)

*huggles*
Areala

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  • Retromags Curator

Doing a bit more research, by the time our law came into place, same-sex marriage was already legal in 8 of the 10 provinces and 1 of the three territories by court decisions in those provinces/territory. The federal law basically made it so the remaining provinces/territories had to allow and recognize same-sex marriages, as well as making it legal no matter where you live. I think in their case, it was that no court case was brought up in those places to make the provincial supreme court to rule it legal, as none of them tried to fight the law once it was passed.

The other thing is we don't have a large religious population like you have in the US to cause a fuss about this kind of thing, nor a large group of super religious politicians. In the campaign leading to the 2006 election, the Conservative leader (and current Prime Minister) campaigned on holding another free vote on the same-sex marriage issue. When he won the election, the party tabled a motion that read "That this House call on the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages." (I am guessing because of the religious definition of marriage as the PM is Catholic), It was a free vote, with members being allowed however they wanted. It was defeated and the PM stated the issue was settled and would not be revisited under any circumstances, and it hasn't. No one even thinks about it here unless we hear some news story about some backwards state finally coming into modern times.

Oddly enough I haven't actually met any gay married people. Where are they hiding??

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  • 4 months later...
  • Retromags Curator

I put this on a CD for my wife shortly after we started dating. I don't care how you feel about the Bee Gees or 70s music, this song always brings a smile to my face. Who new that so many years later, my dream to be 'One' with her would have become a reality? :)

*huggles*
Areala, the silly-joyously-ecstatically-married

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