this isn’t a “gay marrage is bad, gay marrage is good” arguement thread.
I think its pretty reasonable to assume that the first days/weeks/months after gay marrage was allowd that there would be several million new marryed couples.
would this affect things? would there be a wacky month where lines for a marrage licence was 6 hours long? would the paperwork go crazy and colapse the desks of the people that keep track of it? has there ever been a time that would have that number of simaltanious weddings in such a sort time? and name changeing (what would be the custom for that? last names? haveing the same last name seems a good sign of togetherness and relatedness).
would/will that week be absolute hell week for all government paper pushers and such?
It wasn’t the case in Belgium.
Since gay marriages became possible there were such, but there was no such rush into marriage as you describe. It seems to me that gay people do like most people: take their time before taking the step to make their commitment to each other also a legal one.
And I don’t know about the legal regulations in the US but Belgians always keep the name under which they are born, also when married.
To change your name asks for a rather long procedure and you must have very good reasons to have it allowed. (It is easier when you ask your first name to be changed).
There was some mention of increased numbers and longer hours at City Hall during the Gay Pride Parade, soon after gay marriage was legalised here in Ontario, but I get the impression that numbers of registered marriages have not increased greatly overall.
“Millions” is certainly an overstatement. Let’s take the U.S., for instance. The adult population is roughly 200 million. Let’s take the more conservative estimate of 5% population of gay folks and you end up with about 10 million gay people. The last census showed that 56% of het American adults are married, so assuming they marry at the same rate, that means about 5 million gay people would get married leaving 2.5 million marriages at most. And that’s assuming that they are already coupled and ready to get married. Personally I think that over estimates the number of gay people who would want to get married. In the U.S., I’d guess no more than 1 million gay marriages in the first few years of legality.
Are you mad? It’ll take at least six months to plan a proper wedding! Really - it’s these slipshod weddings that are “ruining the institution of marriage” if you ask me. Honestly!
I can’t see why the first day of gay marriage in the US overall would be that different, but I do wonder about the whole Massachusetts situation. If the state has to allow gay marriages during the period between when their time is up to get rid of the ban, and when they can tromp all over progress by making an ammendment to the state constituition that makes the ban constituional again, might couples not rush to take advanatage of that brief window?
I could see myself running to the courthouse with the SO if I only had a short time to get married before the state re-arranged the laws again, if only to help make a bigger mess for those who’d repeal my right to get married in the first place.
I didn’t hear any reports of gluts, stampedes, etc., when gay marriage was legalized in Ontario or BC. The most I heard of was some ribald merriment when, due to the forms not having been updated, couples had to choose which would be the ‘bride’ and which the ‘bridegroom.’
There may be a handful of “city hall” marriages, but most people like a planned out celebration (I’m not one of 'em), so I think there’ll be an increase in marriages, but not a mad rush to the alter.
Wasn’t there some sort of ado about a couple that got married (in one state) but couldn’t get divorced (because they were from another state that didn’t recognize their marriage) ?
