At the moment these words were put to paper, somewhere around 280,000 people in Michigan were barred from marriage. About 44,000 of these people have created a life together anyway. Some of them share in the task of raising children. We’re talking, of course, about gay people. At the time this article was printed, Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban, passed by voters in 2004, was still in effect. But will the law change as the ink dries? Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Bernard A. Friedman heard arguments in the case of DeBoer v. Snyder, and in the coming weeks, he’ll announce his ruling on whether the state’s ban is legal under the U.S. Constitution.