Awesome.

Seriously, why isn't anyone else bothered that American clergy are able to perform legal functions for others? They aren't lawyers, judges, civil servants, or politicians. They really shouldn't be in a position of legal power over others.

Or can anyone sign one of those licenses? Can I just have a friend sign it? Maybe I should learn more about this....

I'm with gradstudent too. I've long advocated for civil unions from the government and marriage from a church. There are plenty of churches that'll marry LGBT community members. Some won't, but you can't get married in a Catholic church if you're not Catholic, so what the hell...

As a side note - I'm not sure if I've ever talked about this on the blog... I'm an ordained minister. I can marry people. But I can't get married myself. Hmpf.

I'm an ordained minister. I can marry people. But I can't get married myself.

Hmpf indeed!

Same-sex marriage is so clearly a civil rights issue.

I suppose that I would take the opposite tack from Alex. I would legally erm everything a "civil union", and then let the religious community deal with marriage as they see fit in accordinance with their traditions and beliefs.

Correction to what I just said from a guy who HATES people who use "their" in incorrect grammatical situations. I should have dealt with the whole mess by saying ......."let the religiious communities deal with marriage as they see fit in accordance with their traditions and beliefs." Since Alex also sometimes serves as a proofreading eagle-eye, I don't want to hit him with both an opposing approach AND awful grammer. (:

Umm, as much as I applaud this symbolic act of theirs, marriage is a SOCIAL institution, not merely religious, not merely governmental, but social.

And I will not be kowtowing to religious bigots by forking over a social institution to them to co-opt as theirs. We'll get our civil unions and then we'll get our marriages and our progressive churches can participate in them while the bigoted ones can get their rapture on and leave us all their stuff.

Marriage ceremonies like wakes for the dead are for the benefit of the guests, not for the participants :)

But anyone at your bowling league can get state permission to conduct a marriage ceremony.

Does that mean you'll get a only-used-once-before-new trailer as your dowry?

There is civil marriage and religious marriage already in this country. We don't have to do anything to achieve that -- it's already accomplished. We simply afford people the convenience of a combined ceremony.

I am suspicious -- and rightly so -- of all this sudden perceived need to change things simply because a class of people many don't approve of are seeking equal access to it.

Marriage is the legal standard around the world -- and, as a lesbian, I'll have a hard enough time getting my civil marriage recognized by other countries without having also to jump through an "is this civil union a civil marriage" hoop, too.

If you want to get the whole world to adopt a civil union standard, be my guest. But, in the meantime, I want equal access to the same civil marriage everyone else gets.

Bravisimo to the Minneapolis/St. Paul churches -- but don't let their principled stand stand in the way of our achieving equal access to the law!

NOTE: I already have equal right to religious marriage in any church/faith/whatever will marry me. The First Amendment works both ways, protecting my right to religious freedom and protecting the same right for those who persist in the foolish notion that being gay is a marriage-excludable sin.