By
Kate McLachlan
What’s your anniversary?
That’s always been a loaded
question for any same-sex couple. Anniversary of what? Denied the right to have a wedding anniversary, we’ve engineered
our own anniversaries. First kiss, first sex, the date we moved in together, the
date we had that private commitment ceremony out on Point Whatchamacallit with
no one but God as our witness. Sometimes our anniversaries commemorate dates so
private we can’t share them, so we don’t even admit them to people who ask.
Opposite sex couples don’t have this problem. They may fondly remember their
first kiss or the date they moved in together, but once they marry, their
marriage date overtakes all others and becomes paramount. What’s your
anniversary, you ask? That’s easy, they say. It’s the date they got married.
Not so for same-sex couples.
Washington State passed
Referendum 74 on November 6, 2012, and the measure will be ratified 30 days
later, on December 6, 2012. On that date same-sex couples will be allowed to
apply for marriage licenses in Washington. We have a 3-day waiting period here,
though, between license and wedding, so December 9, 2012, is the first date
same-sex couples can legally marry in Washington. You might expect, then, that
a lot of same-sex couples in Washington will have anniversary dates of December
9, 2012, or perhaps December 12, 2012, for the 123 crowd.
