State-by-State Laws on Gay Marriage Produce Patchwork Quilt (Businessweek) 
The patchwork quilt of U.S. state laws on same-sex marriage, which Washington is now poised to legalize, leaves gay and lesbian Americans with different rights depending on geography. To opponents, that’s just the way things work in a union of self-governing states.
If Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signs the bill passed by lawmakers yesterday, which she sought, her state would become the seventh in the U.S. to grant so-called marriage equality.
Still, gay couples who wed there wouldn’t see their marriages recognized by the federal government or at least 40 other states that either outlaw same-sex marriage or haven’t addressed it, according to Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy organization that supports gay marriage. That’s fine with John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, an advocacy group working against it.
“We have this system of laboratories called the states where we can try different experiments and see what works well and what doesn’t, without imposing a national rule on everybody,” said Eastman, a professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California.
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Complete article at Businessweek : http://buswk.co/zKdKsg
