By the way up in Washington state...

All the action on the gay marriage/civil union front is not in New England. Recently the Washington state legislature expanded the state's modest domestic partnerships into everything marriage is except the name. That's just how this expansion was openly discussed in the legislature. The bill has been sent to the governor for her signature.

The wacko religious right is trying to organize a referendum against the soon-to-be new law. They argue that the everything-marriage-is-except-the-name law is effectively marriage and within a few years Washington state will have actual gay marriage once people get used to the idea. Well, duh! They've finally got something right. Now they need to convince citizens of Washington state that somehow this matters. Fat chance.

The real evidence that the tide on gay marriage has turned is that politicians are openly embracing it. You can count on one hand the number of years ago that supporting gay marriage was a career-ender, or at least so quivering officeholders thought. They wouldn't give gay marriage advocates the time of day much less support. Civil unions/domestic partnerships were radical ideas on their own and had little support. Then KA-BOOM! The zeitgeist changed. Gay marriage is now on a roll, and Democrats in liberal states (along with a small but growing number of Republicans pols who want a future) are now leading the charge (having sprinted from behind to catch up with the advancing army). Clearly soon we are going to be a nation in which some 10-12 states allow gay marriage. That's the critical mass necessary for advancing to the next phase: federal recognition and repeal of DOMA.

That's also a critical mass necessary for federal judicial action. The idea that a married gay couple with two adopted children enjoy full legal protections as a family in their home state but become four unrelated individuals when they cross the border into one of the anti-gay marriage states is simply repugnant to any conception of equal protection under the law. Someday soon the federal courts will rule that the 14th amendment includes married gays and will overturn all those preposterous anti-gay marriage state constitutional amendments with the stroke of a pen.

I can't wait!