(August 30, 2010 at 4:33 pm)madferit Wrote: I'm sorry but I didn't fully understand, you're saying that the US government is trying to impose laws in your country? It won't be the first time that happens but I find it ironic that they're standing against gay marriage in other nations while 9 of their states allows it
where are you from BTW?
While some states allow gay marriage, other states and the federal government do not recognize same-sex marriage, and some states have outright criminalized gay marriage (if they catch you in the state with any kind of claim that you are married to a same-sex person, you can be jailed, even if you are visiting or passing through!)
This is in spite of the fact that all states are supposed to honor one another's vital statistics. That law is still on the books (honoring other states' vital statistics - marriages, divorce, anullments, births, adoptions, etc), but it's severely weakened in the case of marriage. For instance, a 22-year old man was arrested in Nebraska for statutory rape of his 14-year old wife who he legally married in Kansas. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/30baby.html It's the same theory of nonrecognition of marriages performed in other states which are legal there, but not legal in the state where you are.
Some states even have constitutional amendments about not permitting same-sex marriages in their state!
This all happened before in the early part of the 20th century, except the issue then was interracial marriage. A black person married to a white person could be legal and acceptable in some states, legal and outright illegal in other states where they were visiting or if they moved to another state which prohibited interracial marriage.
When my spousal unit and I were living in Oklahoma, his sister and her legally-married-in-California spouse were afraid to visit us because they could be arrested! They just had to have the status of being legally married to a same-sex partner. No evidence of sexual activity within Oklahoma (or anywhere else) was required.
