Welcome aboard!

About a week ago, Mr. Jooge sent me a link to an NPR piece, because it made him think of me:
Stimulating the Economy with Gay Marriage

I had read somewhere that New York was also using this argument in support of gay marriage.

Then today I read over at the Whatever, How to Save Your State Economy, Scalzi’s commentary on the MSNBC article on the same topic. Only, some commenters have rightly pointed out that $64 million in tax revenue is chump change when you are talking about a state with a deficit of $15 BILLION.

When I got the original email from Mr. Jooge, I had just been tearing up over the story of George Takei’s* wedding. He has been with Brad Altman for 21(!) years, and now they are able to be married, thanks to the change in California. The man is *71* years old. You never know—he might not have that much time left (although he looks much, much younger than that). It made me really happy to know that he will get to experience a state that many of us take for granted.

Way back in the day, John and I were not dead-set on getting married. We were committed to each other and knew that a piece of paper wouldn’t make any difference in how we felt about each other. But then we decided that getting married would make life easier (God—I can’t imagine what a nightmare moving abroad would have been if we weren’t married to each other). I am honest enough to admit that I got all gushy and tingly over throwing a wedding, and reading about George Takei, I felt that all over again on his behalf. I would have loved and honored John no matter what (as George and Brad have done for 21 years), but there was something magical about going through the ceremony, and I am tearing up again thinking about all the people who are going to get to share in that magic.

Mushy, gushy aside, just today I read a fascinating article in the NYTimes, "Gay Unions Shed Light on Gender in Marriage," on how researchers are looking at gay marriages in comparison with hetero marriages, and how they are discovering that some marital problems are not gender-specific, as previously thought. Very interesting stuff.

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* For the geek-impaired, George Takei played Sulu on the original Star Trek series.