As anybody who knows me could say, I’m not a good one to offer advice. Unless, of course, you’re wondering how not to come out to family and friends.

The Colorado GLBT Center’s response is here. A brief excerpt:

The decision doesn’t directly affect Coloradan GLBT couples, who don’t yet have the legal right to marry here.

“A tremendous number of Colorado couples traveled to California from May to November last year while the state recognized same sex marriage,” said Mindy Barton, legal director of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado. “We continue to encourage those couples here in Colorado to use their marriage as an opportunity to educate others about the importance of having the government, not just friends and family, recognize their relationship.”

I found this part of the Court’s ruling…amusing:

“In a sense, petitioners’ and the attorney general’s complaint is that it is just too easy to
amend the California Constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it,” the ruling said.

What about protecting the Constitution from a mere 51% of the voters that bother to show up for an election? I guess that’s far less important.

To be fair, I should say that we have this process in Colorado as well. The petition process is a bit more strenuous, but it comes down to a simple majority vote of the people who bother to go to the polls on Election Day. I should say we also have Amendment 43 in our own state’s Constitution, which effectively bans same-sex marriage by defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Rumor has it that it could be overturned in 2010 by (surprise, surprise) yet another ballot initiative.

This morning, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed LB 1020, the “Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom” bill, into law. Maine is the first state to allow same-sex marriage when there was neither already civil unions or a court order involved.

Here’s part of what Gov. Baldacci had to say:

“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

It’s not settled – don’t think for a minute the haters will sit back and allow this to go unchallenged – but it’s a start.

Iowa.

The Iowa Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling today, said that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was against the state Constitution.

UPDATE: There might be 4 states on that list soon: Vermont.

The court ruling backed a decision by a lower court that had ruled six same-sex couples were wrongly denied marriage licenses by an official in Polk County. Except for the law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the six Iowa couples met the legal requirements to marry, the court said. Justices were forced to overturn that law if it violated the state constitution, “even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion,” according to a summary of the decision.

Also interesting to note is that Iowa doesn’t have a residency requirement for marriage in their state. Hmm…

Big thanks to The Bilerico Project and Pam’s House Blend – I can’t remember which one I saw first this morning, so I’ll just say both.

This is such a lovely article. I wish I could make copies of it for everybody I know who isn’t bi. Really, really lovely.

You know, once I stop being lazy and all, I think I’d like to try this. It would help with my sad, sad soldering skills too.

“Peking Man” was recently re-dated; he’s now believed to be 750,000 years old – 200,000 years older than previously dated.

Oooh, look! Yeah, some people get buses, trams and billboards, “central PA” gets a whole station! From the Friendly Atheist.

Not sure how far this bill will go, but a bill to repeal the ban on LGBT adoption in Florida has officially been filed.

Chris Matthews really said this? I am, honestly, impressed. About time.

So I guess that’s enough links to display my laziness…