The Rhine River: 1913 and Euroregions

Monday, May 24, 2004

There are two items that I have posted at great length, only to delete those posts minute later. Here they are in brief:

Mitt Romney's application of a 1913 law to prevent couples from using marital laws that are different in Massachusetts than in their own states. (See BRDGT and Johno on how hypocritical the law is.) This law is a slap in the face, but its application expresses an obvious reality: same sex couples cannot count on having their Massachusetts marriages recognized out of state. The advocates for same-sex marriage have chosen a state-by-state approach to winning recognition, and they have had success with this strategy. What should be of greater concern is whether or not the secretary of the commonwealth will send records to other states when they are requested, and whether or not the commonwealth will advocate for recognition of specific rights of Massachusetts couples (especially powers of attorney) when they are in other states.

The effort to create a Euroregion between Strasbourg and communities across the Rhine in Baden-Wuertemberg has stalled. There is no specific problem, just that no one appears to be working on it. (Euroregions are unique in that they are alliances of communities on different sides of an international border. They do not involve the respective national governments. Most Euroregions are between Belgian, German and Dutch communities along their borders, the best example being Euregio Maas-Rhein.)