DC Now Issuing Neutered Marriage Licenses

Washington, D.C. has become one of the few places in the U.S. issuing and registering neutered marriage licenses. Most states, of course, will not issue licenses to brideless or groomless couples. Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko reports, bringing us the usual feel-good article that quotes participating couples.

The Rev. Darlene Garner married her partner, the Rev. Candy Holmes, both of Metropolitan Community Churches, a Christian group that primarily serves the gay and lesbian community.

Most churches serve people who identify as homosexual. The difference is that MCC apparently rejects consistent application of Biblical principles in regards to marriage and sexual behavior. You know, it's like a synagogue that primarily serves pork-and-shellfish-eating polytheists, an Amish store that sells all the latest software, or a Gay Pride Festival organized by NARTH.

"Equality and justice for all now includes us," Garner said.

It did a month ago, too, and a year ago.

Rebecca and Delia Taylor picked up their license early Tuesday and immediately were married outside the courthouse by a minister friend. The couple said they long ago exchanged rings and considered themselves married. Still, they were grinning after picking up their certificate back inside the courthouse following the ceremony.

"We've referred to each other as wives," Rebecca Taylor said. "It's just a legal document, so if anything happens to one of us, we have rights."

She is apparently uninformed about all of the other legal mechanisms available, and the article does nothing to inform the reader of those mechanisms.

[More after the jump.]

But Delia Taylor said she found it moving to recite the vows. "My parents have a wonderful marriage," she said.

Notice anything different about your parents? Like, say, one of them is a man?

Young and Townsend married in a room with about 100 guests sitting on white chairs and standing next to bouquets of white snapdragons and yellow chrysanthemums, roses and carnations. A cellist played before the ceremony, and cream and gray programs announced the names of the three pairs along with: "Congratulations to the couples on this historic day."

D.C. bakery Cakelove supplied a three-tiered butter-cream frosted cake with a fresh strawberry filling for each couple.

All of those things were possible a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago.

One couple planned to marry Tuesday at All Souls Church, the Unitarian Universalist house of worship where Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the bill legalizing the unions in December.

I missed the "separation of church and state" and "keep churches out of it" objection to that location.

The court's official marriage booklet has been updated so that the ceremony will end by pronouncing the couple "legally married" as opposed to "husband and wife."

That's a sad dismissal of the importance both of husbands and of wives.