blushing brides behind bars

By ( articles ) | Mar 14, 2004

When Massachusetts finally approves same-sex marriage (or the functional equivalent), its correctional officers will face a new set of challenges. Prisoners already have the right to marry while incarcerated, though heretofore the happy couple -- as the practical necessities of confinement entailed -- were always domiciled in different places. In a few months, obviously, a man will be able to marry his cellmate. What conceivable obstacle could there be? We can expect romance to blossom at MCI-Concord and elsewhere, under the beaming gaze of the Commonwealth's Supreme Judicial Court. You can bet Bishop Thomas Dupre, between treatments at the St. Luke Institute, is paying close attention.

And of course long-term prison inmates are allowed "conjugal visits" as well. In the old days this involved a certain amount of fuss and bother on the part of the prison staff so as to arrange the time and place of the marital encounter. Soon (in the case of favored criminals) this awkwardness will be rendered unnecessary, and spontaneity will return to connubial bliss. Would the State, in the guise of uniformed correctional personnel, dare to interfere in the nuptial embrace, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court's contralto arias on the sanctity of the privacy of the sweet mystery of life delivered in the Lawrence decision? Not a chance.