Marriage

[Jesse]

Starting to see some fruit from a small scattered bit of meddling I did a few years back. Oddly, its roots appear to have spread in an unexpected direction, and the first serious progress is popping up now in Alabama, of all places. The state is getting out of the marriage licensing business completely, and becoming simply a holder of public record. Here's the public face of it:
Seed with more background info, including switches to some of the original source people (again, none of which were involved in Alabama politics, or even had any serious association with the state, so this amuses me to no end on how far it spread), can be found in the marriage certificate in the gazebo room.

[Ethan]

I've seen some concerns that this is a move which will actually make seeking help more difficult for abuse victims... http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/201 ... _make.html

I totally get why getting the State out of the marriage game is a long-term incremental good in a lot of ways, but that's some bitter fruit, Jesse. I think we either need to walk it back or start seriously working on an immediate support network to take place of the one being pulled in this move.

[Jesse]

I have some irons in the fire on that, as well, but timing them all to coordinate properly is proving difficult. Best I can see, it'll be rolled out over the next decade or so. Most of the larger organizations saw this coming and are scrambling to do the slight realigning they'll need, but pushing the hundreds of legislators only goes so fast, and each offers a completely different level of resistance, especially when meddling through secondary influencers.

[Ethan]

Let me know if I can help. The idea of anyone being trapped because of us...

I mean, I get the bigger picture stuff. But I hate the compromises.