Gay couples race to wed over fears for future of same-sex marriage

[Ms. Toad]

6. Bad idea . . .

It is not at all clear that if same gender marriage is abolished that being married will do any good. Theoretically, it should - since you are creating property rights in those things associated with marriage - but property rights can be taken away, as long as due process is followed.

Getting married because you might not be able to in the future is not a way to decide create a bond that (theoretically) is a lifetime bond. And - divorces are much, much harder if the marriage is not recognized. We spent a lot of time thinking about this before we went to Canada to have our marriage recognized. We have had a common law marriage (but for same gender) since 1981 - and once marriage was recognized, the full duration of our marriage was also. We also had a marriage in our faith community and, much later, obtained legal recognition for a statutory marriage in Canada.

The latter was the hardest decision to make, because we know too much about the law. In order to grant a divorce, the marriage must be recognized in the first place. Unlike marriages, divorces generally take place in the community in which one (or both) spouses reside for a period of time - so no quickly travel divorces. That meant that we were committing to be married not just theoretically forever - but if we ever wanted to end our legal relationship we were committing to one of us (at least) moving to a jurisdiction that recognized our marriage to end it.

So - marriages entered into in order to beat a perceived deadline may well create legal nightmares in the event the conservatives end up wiping out recognition of same gender marriages.