Gay marriage in Massachusetts and elsewhere

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is trying to uphold the 1913 law forbidding the out-of-state couples whose marriage would be illegal in their own state from marrying in Massachusetts. The reasoning being that if out-of-state couples start marrying in Massachusetts it might cause a backlash across the country, and even possibly a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Oh, wait! Isn't that the same Mitt Romney who has just testified on Capitol Hill in favor of such an amendment? Couldn't be, could it? Must be another Massachusetts governor by the same name.

The law was passed in 1913, when Massachusetts allowed interracial marriage and most other states didn't, for the exact purpose of preventing interracial couples from other states from marrying there. It wasn't enforced ever since all states started allowing interracial marriage, but was kept on the books. Never throw out the old stuff, never know when you'd need it again... The law was taken into use again this May by a strange coincidence, and naturally is enforced for both homosexual and heterosexual couples now. To prevent discrimination, you know.

The whole fight for gay marriage in the US reminds so much of the fight for interracial marriage that the wrong side of the debate could really just read up on history, realize that they are gonna lose and give up. Or, failing that, both sides could take the arguments from the old newspapers instead of writing their own.