Tim Church, a spokesman for the Washington health department, told Fox News they will likely be removing the words “bride” and “groom” from state wedding certificates when their same-sex marriage law goes into effect next week. Those words will be replaced with gender-neutral terms.
“We’ve been quickly moving ahead to change our marriage certificate to make sure it fits for everyone who is going to be using it.”-Tim Church
Unfortunately, the words “bride” and “groom” may be replaced with awkward terms like “Spouse A” and “Spouse B” or “Person A” and “Person B.” Such wooded phrases are sure to stoke the fires of resistance. But, eventually the state will realize that neither partner needs to be ranked. Whereas patriarchal unions have often hidden a hierarchical mindset, egalitarian relations need no such ranking. So the state can just leave two places for the “spouses” or “partners” to sign. As Church noted:
“We want our form to work for everyone who is getting married,”
Jim–did you see this article that shows how some states have done marriage licenses as far back as 1930? http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/30/marriage-equality/