Reply #33: Not quite the same thing

[Boston Critic]

Marriage is something that is specifically left up to the states, and the "right" to get married does, indeed, vary from state to state.

At the Federal level we should support anti-discrimination laws and oppose the offensive and needless "Defense of Marriage" amendment, but deciding who gets to marry is a state matter. Where I would federalize it is enforcing the "full faith and credit" clause, which requires states to recognize as valid the legal actions of other states. Thus states accept each other's driver's licenses, and if I've got a valid marriage in Arkansas then Oregon can't refucse to accept it.

Right now civil unions and gay marriages from Massachusetts are not being accepted in other states, but it's only a matter of time that the federal law permitting this is struck down as unconstitutional.