My sister is getting married. Wahooooo! Four years ago, after a succession of train-wreck relationships she met a wonderful person.

For the past year and a half they have been living together on nine acres in North Carolina with five dogs, three cats, eight goats and a very noisy flock of ducks, chickens and guinea fowl.

This month, they will be going up to Cape Cod to make it official.

It will just be her and her fiancee. In part because her intended has a huge family and getting them all in the same place at the same time is a lot like planning D-Day. In part because the last time Ellen tied the knot, I filled her luggage with rice. But mainly because North Carolina doesn't allow same-sex marriages and Massachusetts recently announced that same-sex couples from out of state could be married there.

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Ellen dated a lot of boys in high school and college. She married a year after she graduated from the University of Chicago. She was divorced five years later and dated a few other men before she decided she preferred women.

I don't understand it. I'm a flaming heterosexual. (References supplied upon request.) But she's my sister, and I'm glad she's happy.

She finally found a partner I like. Talitha is a cheerful gray-haired lady who loves music as much as we do. She loves her family, likes to cook and enjoys knitting.

She has been married twice. She has two nice daughters. One is married. The other is marrying a fine young man in June.

My sister and I love Scottish Highland Games. Talitha loves them too. Ellen's ex-husband always complained that there were too many bagpipes.

Her chief failing is that she can't leave a pet store empty- handed (in case you were wondering how they wound up with five dogs).

So, I'm glad Ellen and Talitha are getting married. If you aren't, I'm sorry. But I don't see why it's your concern.

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The media like to show the scary gays. Sister Boom Boom or Dykes on Bikes, the gays who let their sexuality define who they are.

They don't show the accountants and librarians who do what straight people do. They go to work. They buy clothes on sale at Kohl's. They complain about their income taxes. They mow their lawns, walk their dogs, go to church. They fall in love and want to get married. In Massachusetts, they can.

I've heard all the arguments against gay marriage.

Want to marry your cousin? Not particularly, but Ashley Wilkes did. In "Gone With The Wind," he tells Scarlett how good it is that he and Melanie will have so much in common. Laws regarding marriage between cousins vary from state to state, but once such a marriage takes place all states recognize it as valid.

Want to marry your cat? Viggo Marmalade is considerably more intelligent, affectionate and better looking than some of the men I've dated. But he can't talk or write his name, so he can't sign a marriage license.

What about polygamists? What about them? If my sister wanted to marry three women I'd be upset. Gay couples are still couples. But I would point out that if my sister had three ex-husbands and wanted to try a fourth, the marriage would be recognized in all 50 states.

Divorce hurts families, everybody agrees, but nobody wants to do anything about it. Even Pat Robertson is cautious on this subject. This year conservatives are lining up behind a man who dumped the mother of his child for a blond heiress.If you've ever seen "Showboat" you know there was a time when marriages between two people of different races were illegal in some states. I'm sure the men who made those laws believed they had good reasons to pass them. I'm also sure they would be surprised to see Barack Obama, the son of a mixed-race couple, in the U.S. Senate, let alone running for president.

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Every state has different laws regarding who can get married and how they can do it. But once a license is signed, as long as it's a straight couple, their marriage is considered legal in the rest of the country.

I strongly suspect that most of the marriages that happen in Vegas ought to stay in Vegas. But the couple who got drunk and slurred their vows in front of an Elvis impersonator are every bit as married in Omaha as they are in Sin City.

Ellen has been involved with a lot of people, of both sexes, who were not good marriage material.

If she had decided to marry that guy who thought he could play the piano, or the jerk who left her on the front porch dead drunk, or the nut case or the shrew, I wouldn't be happy.

But she's marrying Talitha, who likes singing around the dinner table and going to the highland games. So I'm thrilled.

Neither one of them has family in North Carolina. But before October is out, they'll have each other.