Editorial

Visiting equality
© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

As gas prices top off at $4 a gallon, more folks are opting for the stay-cation — visiting local attractions to save on travel costs. But perhaps the LGBT community should be thinking about taking their pink dollars to the locales that embrace equality, even while it fights for equal rights at home — voting with its wallet, if you will.

One choice topping the list is California, where the state’s Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples could marry — and the state doesn’t have a residency requirement. If you’re heading to the Sunshine State, you might want to plan it fast: A measure will be on the November ballot to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Another gay-marriage-friendly destination is Canada, where marriage has been legal since 2005 (and earlier in various territories). If you don’t have plans for next weekend, Montreal is holding Divers/Cite July 29-Aug. 3, with the city’s separate pride event happening Aug. 14-17. On the Pacific, Vancouver Pride is Aug. 3.

If you are aching to dust off the passport, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway and South Africa are all proponents of same-sex marriage; now might be the time to plan that African safari.

Back in the states, Washington is celebrating its one-year anniversary of granting domestic partnerships; Maine and the District of Columbia offer them as well. Again on the West Coast, Oregon offers domestic partnerships that offer all the rights of marriage; how about a tour of the coastal redwoods? Hawaii offers reciprocal beneficiary laws (Diamond Head and Waikiki, anyone?). In the Northeast, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire have civil unions.

And New York’s governor recently said that state would recognize marriages legally performed in other states.

Just across the Delaware River, New Jersey offers civil unions close to home — Collingswood and Lambertville have been prime ceremony spots.

Of course, you could just stay home and donate your time and/or those pink dollars to a good marriage-advocacy organization to bring the equality home.