Michigan's first legal same-sex marriage

March 15, 2013 4:28 PM

Odawa Indian tribe hosts Michigan's first legal same-sex marriage (and the third among all US Native nations). It was a historic day. Not just for them and not just for the tribe that [Tim] LaCroix belongs to, but for Michigan too. News story from UpNorthLive.
posted by NoMich (10 comments total)

Eponosterical?
Anyway, nice to see civilization continuing to spread. And now I've learned that "freep.com" isn't an alias for freerepublic.com....
posted by uosuaq at 4:35 PM on March 15, 2013

This is so awesome, my mom's gentleman friend belongs to this tribe, our close family friends are too, and I grew up in this area so I'm especially happy to see this. This area tends to be fairly conservative and I don't hold hands with my girlfriend when I'm visiting home, so it's nice to feel like there are allies in what I will always think of as "up North". (Of course I understand that not everyone in the tribe is an LGBTQ ally and I respect that.) I'm especially excited to call my mom to share this with her and I know her first response is going to be to ask me if that means I can come home and marry my ladyfriend, and I'll have to tell her that we can't since neither of us are tribal citizens and she'll try to tell me that she knows people who know people, maybe they'll make an exception. (Her heart is in the right place.)

“We’ve been partners for 30 years in the way people use the word ‘partner’ for a same sex couple,” Barfield said. “Now we’re not going to be partners anymore. We’re going to be spouses.”

I'm really looking forward to that day, myself.
posted by thesocietyfor at 4:47 PM on March 15, 2013 [7 favorites]

The Free Press's decision to describe some of the witnesses as "beefy" was unkind.
posted by Area Man at 4:55 PM on March 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

No kidding, I totally missed that when reading this. I'm not a huge fan of the Free Press and this pretty much sums it up.
posted by thesocietyfor at 5:00 PM on March 15, 2013

So is the marriage legal in the rest of Michigan or only in the Ottawa reservation? I'm assuming just in the reservation. Nether news report made that clear.
posted by riruro at 5:20 PM on March 15, 2013

Just the Odawa reservation, same-sex marriage is still banned in Michigan by constitutional amendment and it's one of the few states where adoption by same-sex couples is outlawed, too, there's a current challenge to that amendment. (Currently stalled by the judge in the case until the Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage.)
posted by thesocietyfor at 5:26 PM on March 15, 2013

The bit that sent my blood pumping (in a good way):

And because of tribal sovereignty, neither the state’s constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage nor the federal Defense of Marriage Act can stop them.

Huzzah for tribal sovereignty!
posted by feral_goldfish at 5:41 PM on March 15, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Free Press's decision to describe some of the witnesses as "beefy" was unkind.

Maybe they were minotaurs.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:12 PM on March 15, 2013

Maybe there were big, muscular, and HOT.
posted by Goofyy at 7:43 AM on March 16, 2013

"The tribe joins the Coquille Tribe of Oregon, who began recognizing gay marriage in 2009, and the Suquamish Tribe in Washington, which passed its own similar law in 2011."
posted by homunculus at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2013