Hands Up

Now that New Jersey's Supreme Court has decreed that the legislature must provide something functionally equivalent to marriage for same-sex couples, there's an interesting geographic pattern developing with respect to gay rights. First Vermont legalized same-sex civil unions. Then Massachusetts provided for same-sex marriages. Now New Jersey and Connecticut have or will have same-sex civil unions. And somewhere along the line Canada legalized same-sex marriage. If you look hard enough at a map of New York and its surroundings...

...you'll notice that all of the North American political regions that have recognized same-sex intimate partnerships border on New York state. And yet, thanks to New York's Court of Appeals and a legislature that's dragging its feet on the issue, New York itself has not allowed for same-sex unions. All that's left is for Pennsylvania to legalize marriage or same-sex unions and New York state will be entirely surrounded by water and land where gay people can be married/united.

On the plus side, though, at least New York doesn't have a law on the books expressing public opposition to same-sex marriage and forbidding recognition of same-sex unions created in other states, unlike certain Californias I could mention.