Raf: Did
you hear about Wisconsin?
Marc: Period Garden Park?
Raf:
Absolutely!
I admit it,
as a child I used to wonder at my parents, who could telescope an entire
conversation into about six words. Now I totally get it, because who needs to
do the whole thing, which would be:
Raf: Did
you hear about Wisconsin?
Marc:
Yeah, isn’t that great? You think there’s a federal judge out there who’s willing
to support a same-sex ban?
Raf: Nah…
Marc: Hey,
wanna get married in the Period Garden Park?
Raf:
Absolutely!
OK—it’s
happening so fast that you may have missed it, since the accurate headline
would run, “Ho-hum, Another Federal Judge Strikes Down Same-Sex Marriage Ban.”
But a Friday or two ago, Judge Barbara Crabb
joined the parade, and issued
her ruling. And she slung a few, rather crabby—sorry, had to—remarks to all those who
believe in “traditional” marriage. She pointed
out that, for most of humankind, marriage ha been between one man and
multiple women, and was that where we wanted to revisit?
Undoubtedly,
the judge had been reading this blog—I think that’s totally neat, and sorry,
Judge, for poking fun at your name. (I know what that’s like, since I’ve spent
a lifetime being called Marc Outhouse…)
At any
rate, the judge ruled on a Friday afternoon, and then some neat stuff happened.
There were the
two guys who told the waitress in the pizzeria that they had just gotten
married. So she told the boss, who promptly said that the food was on the
house. That, of course, went viral—definitely good business move. Note—get
ready for the Westboro
Baptist Church, guys!
Then there
was the county clerk of
Milwaukee, who decided to open
the clerk’s office on Saturday, a day it would normally be closed. So—this
being Wisconsin—he paid for the whole thing out of his own pocket. And what’s
happened to him now? He
got slapped with a lawsuit, which is causing him, he says, no loss of
sleep.
The
predictable happened, meaning that 555 or some such number same-sex marriages
took place, and then another federal judge put
a stay on the ruling. So now the Wisconsin couples are in legal limbo, as
are couples in various other states, including Utah and Michigan.
So, Dear
Reader, you’re all invited to the Period Garden Park, on the second Saturday of
June, 2015 to witness the consummation of what we started thirty-two years ago.
That is…
Mr.
Fernández, will you marry me?
(Here's what's NOT gonna happen!!!)