Wednesday 19-Nov-2003

Amazing how things can suddenly change... yesterday the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it was a violation of the state Constitution to prohibit the civil marriage of two people of the same gender. They postponed enforcement of the ruling for 180 days, to give the state legislature time to figure out how to handle this.

So nothing is likely to happen immediately, but it still leaves me in the position of perhaps waking up one morning to find that I am in a different income tax category. Joann and I have never been particularly interested in "getting married", but about ten years ago we registered as Domestic Partners with the Cambridge MA city clerk because we needed to provide evidence of our "partnership" to my employer in order for Joann to be eligible for my dental insurance plan.

I dropped a note to a Cambridge City Councilor who announced she was introducing a council bill next week to have Cambridge immediately start issuing same-gender marriage licenses, asking if there were any plans to retroactively declare all the "DP"s to be married (she didn't know). But I figure that we may be forced into it anyway: already one major employer who offers DP benefits is mulling publicly about how that was set up because the gay couples had no ability to be officially married, but if they do now then the company may change its criteria, since they don't give benefits to opposite-gender non-married partner.

What will it be: newlyweds or owed 12 years of wedding and anniversary gifts?! Either way, I'm glad it's not my week to visit with my 89-year-old Catholic father - he knows about both my sister and me, but that won't stop the monologue...

A more immediately useful change is that it looks like my band is about to become roommates with Shelley. Rick and company are moving to a different rehearsal space in their current building Jan. 1 and invited us to co-rent. I'm going over tonight to see the room, but we've basically agreed to commit for 6 months, while we see where the band goes. We'll also still maintain our links with JamSpot, as we'll want to use their Showcase room and recording facilities at times, too (probably more so during Red Sox season - the rehearsal space is behind Fenway Park!).

All this as I'm about to go to Canada for the last official BodySoul Rhythms seminar by Marion, Mary and Ann. Next year the MWF takes over the programming, and we'll see how all that works.

Changes everywhere...

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