Gay marriage and the Y2Gay bug

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Unsurprisingly, Holland was the first country to legalise gay marriage, all the way back in 2001. Since then, another six countries have taken the plunge, and there are plenty more sitting on the fence (but at least facing the right way) by allowing “civil partnerships”, or some other stupidly-named approximation of holy matrimony.

Sure, there have been some backward steps, too – such as the outrageous display of bigotry that was California’s Proposition 8 – but on the whole, things are getting better. Personally, the prospect of marriage in any form is terrifying, but if it’s available at all, then it should be available to all.

Besides narrow-minded folk, there is another group of people that may have a problem with the whole thing: database designers. I don’t mean to imply that they’re homophobic (although I can’t guarantee that some aren’t), but only that gay marriage is going to cause them a lot of headaches. (more…)