11.21.2003

Let the wiggling begin -- state AG Tom Reilly has finally piped up about the SJC's gay marriage ruling, and he's in over his head already. He wants to draft a civil union statute to confer some of those "rights and benefits of marriage" that the court said should be made available to, uh, EVERYONE to gay and lesbian couples. Reilly claims he (the state's top lawyer, mind you) "can't say with any certainty what the court intends." Hmmm, it seems pretty clear to Laurence Tribe, Harvard's constitutional guru -- when the court "forbids the creation of second-class citizens" it probably doesn't want to see some separate-but-equal sham, but some nice plain language. "I see this as a great opportunity to treat people fairly," Reilly said. Apparently "fair" and "equal" are not the same thing anymore. On a dark pronouncement note, just wait 'til Reilly tries to unseat Romney in the governor's race in a few years...how many Democrats will be left unalienated by then if he keeps doing Romney's bidding?

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