Recently in Caribbean Marriage Category

Three pieces of same-sex marriage news to talk about today.

First Aruba must register the lesbian marriage I mentioned the other day. While legally this is a good thing for the couple, I expect given the news surrounding the issue, they should probably stay in Holland. Also if the Aruban government takes the case to Holland's Supreme Court, I have a feeling that the ruling will be upheld, simply because Holland is more liberal than Aruba.

Note to the Aruban government, just because you legally have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Holland, doesn't mean you have to start performing them. That is a whole different battle that will have to be decided in another venue.

The second piece of news is that Massachusetts voters could be voting in 2008 to amend their state constitution. Mass. lawmakers are pushing to have same-sex marriages defined as a union between a man and a woman.

Gov. Mitt Romney initially supported a compromise which would provide GLBT's Vermont style civil-unions. He has now withdrawn his support of the compromise because he feels that civil-unions cloud the issue.

The one problem that the Constitutional Convention is going to have to deal with is loss of support. The latest person to withdraw support is Rep. Anthony Petruccelli, D-Boston.

Petruccelli told Bay Windows, which features gay news, that legalized gay marriage has "made strong unions among people who have not had the opportunity until that time to get married."

While marriage has probably "made strong unions," I doubt that straight marriage has been weakened by gays and lesbians getting married. Wake up Mass. just because two men decide to say "I do" doesn't affect the way you live your daily life.

Finally Gov. Rick Perry of my home state of Texas has sent 10,000 emails in support of the marriage amendment that we will be voting on in November. All I have to say about that tonight, is I hope that his support of Prop. 2 comes back to bite him on the butt when it's time for reelection.

Aruba is currently trying to get out of recognizing a lesbian couples marriage certificate. One island court had already ruled in favor of the couple, yet the government appealed and a ruling is supposed to be issued on Tuesday. From what I gather from the article it should be pretty open and shut.

Dutch law requires the kingdom's three parts the Netherlands, Aruba and the Dutch Antilles to recognize each other's legal documents, including marriage certificates.

Aruba is trying to claim self-rule which should allow them to ignore same-sex marriages. Well I'm sorry, you can't pick and choose what you want to accept as a legal document and what is not.

This of course mirrors the situation here in the U.S. where each state is supposed to recognize each others legal documents, and yet same-sex marriage certificates issued in Massachusetts are only valid in that state. Not even our own federal government will accept a marriage certificate issued to a same-sex couple.

Hopefully the blue kingdom will win out over the red autonomous republic within the kingdom.