The District of Columbia started issuing marriage licensesto same-sex couples at 12:01 am as part of the city’s new civil marriage equality law. According to the Washington Post, at least fifty couples lined up before District office opened to get licenses, and hundreds are expected throughout the day.

The new law means a lot for couples, many of whom never believed they would have the opportunity:

Republican Craig Max has dreamed for years of having the ultimate D.C. wedding — a National Cathedral ceremony, followed by a rooftop reception for 200 overlooking the National Mall at the Kennedy Center. But the Log Cabin Republicans boardmember didn’t expect he’d ever be able to marry his partner, former Supreme Court librarian Michael Zurat, until today.

The couple is one of many same-sex Washington couples who are expected to line up outside the District Superior Courthouse today, the first day that same-sex couples can apply for a marriage license under the District’s new gay marriage law.

The law has many grappling with new, uncharted territory — in both their love lives and work lives.

“Right now we’re in a gray zone between being engaged and fully married and having that commitment,” said Max, who recently gave Zurat an engagement ring. “Now we will actually reach our goal of having a formal and recognized within the traditional definition that we view our relationship.”

It will also give them definition to a four-year relationship, allow them to further solidify estate planning and guarantee them hospital visitation rights that are currently only secured under the District’s domestic partnership rights.

Read more in the Politico.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler issued an opinon that Maryland law requires the state to recognize same-sex unions performed in other states:

The opinion appears to place Maryland alongside New York in its view of out-of-state gay marriages. Until now, New York was the only state that didn’t perform same-sex weddings but offered gay couples married elsewhere the same legal protections that married heterosexual couples enjoy.

Washington, D.C., which is expected to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples this spring, also honors same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. California recognizes some out-of-state gay marriages.

Attorney General Douglas Gansler issued his opinion Wednesday in response to a lawmaker’s question about how the state should regard gay couples legally wed elsewhere.

“State agencies in Maryland will recognize out-of-state gay marriages as of right now,” Mr. Gansler said at a press conference, according to The Washington Post.

Since Washington is set to begin performing same-sex marriages in the coming weeks, there is some concern among state legislators that gay couples in Maryland will simply marry in Washington and sidestep the state’s law. According to The Baltimore Sun, one lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban the state from honoring those unions.

Gansler appears to be attempting to preempt that move.

Still, in his written decision, he said, “what we say in this opinion is a prediction, not a prescription” about how Maryland’s court would view the matter.

Read more about Gansler’s decision in The Baltimore Sun.

A poll conducted for the Washington Post shows that a majority of voters back the right to marry for all couples regardless of their sexual orientation. The poll does show a significant racial divide on the subject; while eithty-three percent of white voters back marriage equality, only thirty-seven percent of African American voters are supportive. There is also significant support for a referendum to sustain the law 2009 law passed by the City Council.

Although most District residents are in sync with the council in support of same-sex marriage, there is widespread public support for putting the question to a city-wide vote.

Nearly six in 10 residents say they would prefer to vote on the issue. City leaders have said a public vote would be discriminatory. “I don’t think it should be a decree made by the government,” said Pablo Barreyro, 72, of Chevy Chase. “I don’t think it should be left to a small party of politicians. . . . I really wonder what the outcome would be if it becomes available for public input.”

If it lands on the ballot, however, the District would be well positioned to become the first state-level jurisdiction in the country where voters embraced same-sex marriage, according to the poll.

Nearly six in 10 D.C. residents, including 83 percent of whites, favor making it legal for gay couples to marry.

…

But some divisions are evident in the local black community on this issue, with sharp divides by church attendance and education.

One in five African Americans who attend church services weekly favor same-sex marriage, and support rises to 47 percent among those who attend less often. A narrow majority of black college graduates supports gay marriage, compared with about a third of African Americans with less formal education.

Read more about marriage equality in Washington, DC in the Washington Post.

CBS News reports that Cindy McCain, the wife of 2008 Republican Presidential Nominee Senator John McCain publicly joined the fight for the right for marriage equality. Appearing in a photoshoot by Adam Bouska with tape over her mouth and a “NOH8″ logo on her face, McCain is hoping her position can bring attention to the efforts to overturn California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.

McCain’s appearance comes as former Bush Adminstration Solicitor General Ted Olson, is in Court challenging Proposition 8, who recently published a column in Newsweek arguing his belief in the fundemental right for gay and lesbian couples to marry. Olson’s arguments were joined by Robert Levy, Chairman of the Cato Institute and conservative Fox News Contibutor Margaret Hoover in speaking  out on the conservative case for marriage.

McCain, who approached the campaign offering her support, having been a champion for her daughter Meghan McCain, a vocal advocate for same-sex marriage and the keynote speaker at the 2009 Log Cabin Republican National Convention. In a piece, published by GayPolitics.com, McCain is joined by a number of notable Republican leaders, including Vice President Dick Cheney, McCain-Palin Campaign Manager Scott Schmidt, California Governor Arnold Schwarzeger, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Massachussets Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker who is running with openly gay Richard Tisei, among many more.

Reuters analyzes one of the central claims made against same-sex marriage, whether gays can raise children:

The quality of the relationship between the child and the parents, the relationship between the parents, and the economic resources available to the family, were the top issues for healthy children,’ [Michael Lamb, head of the Social and Developmental Psychology Department at Cambridge University] said.

Kids had no trouble with their own sexual identity or other development due to growing up with same-sex parents, he argued, and the ways fathers and mothers interacted with kids was not as important as having two parents, he said.

“Children clearly benefit when they have two parents, both of them actively involved,” said Lamb. Asked if mothers and fathers interacted differently with children, he replied, “It is now quite clear that those differences in and of themselves do not significantly affect children’s adjustment,” he said.

Studies reject the conclusion that children are abused more when raised by same-sex couples.

“There is no evidence that gays or lesbians are more likely to sexually abuse children,” he said. “This is one of those fairly old canards.”

Read the rest of the article at Reteurs.com. To learn more about the trial, visit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.