More on Sarah and Kirsten's marriage

Here are some more legal issues surrounding Sarah and Kirsten's marriage, first a San Francisco gay marriage, then a "straight" marriage when the first is voided.

• Even if the San Francisco marriage were upheld, it wouldn't have been of much comfort. US federal law would still treat the two as unmarried strangers, thanks to Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, passed by Republican Congress and signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton. That would mean taxation at the higher single rate, not to mention denied recognition of the marriage when visiting another state. This is also true of the Massachusetts gay marriages, the only legal gay marriages in the US.
• California does offer a domestic partnership program for gays as well as elderly straights. Domestic partnerships are taxed at the married rate, for state income tax only, but that's a perk that doesn't kick in until the 2007 tax year. This won't apply to Sarah and Kirsten, however, as their second, legal marriage will technically be a heterosexual one.
• Most states have amended their constitutions to forever ban gay marriages. Many, including Texas and Georgia, have banned recognition of other states' domestic partnerships as well. Ohio went as far as prohibiting private employers from ever recognizing any same-sex relationships and offering benefits based on them. Credit is due to nonwhite reactionary scumballs like Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Reverend Sun Myung Moon, loved by conservatives for their conservatism, and protected by liberals by virtue of their nonwhiteness.
• Arizona voters have shot down a similar constitutional ban on gay marriage - the only state to do so. California has seen renewed efforts by Christians and Third World immigrants to constitutionally ban gay marriages (and abolish domestic partnerships), but none have made it to the ballot.
• Since Sarah and Kirsten's second marriage is technically heterosexual, it should survive any and all of these sinister attacks on the civil rights of LGBTs.

The role of Kirsten's mother should be considered. Since she's one of the outcasts of the Korean-American community (having married a white American soldier), and since outcasts tend to be hard on other outcasts, she will be very opposed to Kirsten's marriage to Sarah, and supportive of the Korean-American community's powerful anti-LGBT lobby. I have to reconsider Kirsten's relationship to her mother at this point, as I had seen it as a controlled, amicable relationship, but no longer wish to portray it that way.