Marriage on Our Minds

There's been some heartache mixed in with the general celebration about President-Elect Barack Obama's recent victory. Most notably, we have seen multiple anti-gay initiatives affirmed, including Proposition 8 in California.

In addition to street protests and lawsuits, citizen activists have proposed taking economic steps, including moving the Sundance Film Festival out of Mormon-dominated Utah.

My friend JB, watching the election results come in, noticed one state in particular:

And then she thought, How about we get Nevada to re-write their constitution in support of gay marriage?

Image: James Marvin Phelps on Flickr

Part of why Nevada voted Democratic this year is that they're really hurting economically. Surely some creative legislator in the Silver State will see legalizing gay marriage as a possible gold mine. In one easy step, Nevada could be looking at an even larger slice of our country's 50 billion dollar wedding cake. Skeptical legislators could give their counterparts in Massachusetts a call, since that state has already reaped a significant gay marriage dividend. So how 'bout it, land of double rainbows?

Image: Beat Kueng on Flickr

Okay, so that's probably not going to happen. But you know what will for sure happen? The young people for whom banning gay marriage is a non-starter are going to grow up. As I've been saying for years, "I can outlast the dinosaurs."

(Hat tip to JB, of course.
For additional reading, this
discussion and critique of the
"Blame African-Americans for Prop. 8's passing" meme.)