Maine governor signs same-sex marriage act

And then there were two... Only two New England states (New Hampshire and Rhode Island) don't allow same-sex marriage. The only states that allow gay marriage are currently:

• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• Vermont
• Maine

and

• Iowa

No, so-called "liberal" California voted against same-sex marriage after the state's supreme court ruled that disallowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. So California's in a bit of a pickle: should they recognize the marriages of citizens who got married after the supreme court's ruling; what about those that got married in San Francisco before the supreme court ruling? Hmmm...


What's more, the federal government passed the so-called "Defense" of Marriage Act (which - one could argue - is a form of enforced "separate-but-equal"), meaning that they don't recognize same-sex marriages... which means legally married same-sex couples still have to fill out two individual tax returns, they aren't able to gain social security benefits, and a host of other problems because of this federal-level discrimination. Of course, this might come to a head with the recent passage through the Washington DC city council of a law that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states. This is interesting because the law needs to be approved by the United States Congress, and so if the Congress approves it, does it mean that the Defense of Marriage Act might be repealed?