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Gov. Rick Snyder is on the wrong side of history on gay marriage. And he still won't do the right thing.

(File Photo | MLive.com)

Update, Wednesday, March 26: Gov. Rick Snyder today announced that the gay marriages performed Saturday are legal, but the state still won't recognize them.

When I got married last December, I didn't have to worry about the flowers, ceremony or pictures.

I'm a no-fuss, no-muss kind of lady, so it suited me just fine that the Nevada chapel took care of all of that for us (and we got to skip out on the average $28,000 price tag for nuptials -- a real blessing, since we have kids to get through college).

I also didn't have to worry that my marriage would be recognized by the state of Michigan. That's a right I enjoy as a woman just because I married a man.

Sadly, the more than 300 couples who wed on Saturday aren't being afforded the same right. That's only because those marriages were between two women or two men.

And that's in spite of the fact that Michigan last week became the 18th state to legalize gay marriage.

But Gov. Rick Snyder is still standing in the way.

How did we get here? It starts with a couple who have been together eight years and have

three kids,

. They

filed a lawsuit in 2012 that ended up challenging Michigan's 2004 gay marriage ban.

Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette, both Republicans, fought vigorously to uphold the law. On Friday, federal Judge Bernard Friedman eviscerated their case in his decision,

"

a fringe viewpoint that is rejected by their colleagues across a variety of social science fields."

But even though Friedman ruled that gays are guaranteed the right to marry under the Equal Protection Clause, those happy couples faced another road block from Rick Snyder.

The governor's office announced that none of those marriages would be recognized by the state of Michigan, citing a stay issued by the 6th Circuit Appeals Court after their nuptials were performed on Saturday.

Let's be clear: Snyder is on the wrong side of history. A majority of Michiganders and Americans support gay marriage. That's because marriage is a basic right.

And love is love, as the simple eloquent motto goes.

But our governor

committed tax dollars fighting a losing legal battle, an odd position for a fiscal conservative to take.

And now he essentially supports the state denying legal contracts, an odd position for an attorney and accountant to take.

Snyder had the chance to do the right thing and recognize marriages that were performed Saturday. He also could stop defending a legally indefensible law.

That's what he would do if he were interested in equality or was the moderate he's portrayed as.

Lest you argue that Republicans aren't there yet, that's just not true.

There's a reason why ultra-conservative Greg McNeilly, a longtime adviser to Dick DeVos, was one of the first in line Saturday to marry his male partner. Marriage is an important issue for many, personally and politically.

And Snyder has the perfect example to follow from a fellow GOP governor ... in Nevada. Gov. Brian Sandoval agreed with his attorney general in February to stop defending the Silver State's gay marriage ban.

Significantly, Nevada's case was at the federal appeals court level, just as Michigan's is.

By the way, there's no political penalty for Sandoval's decision. He's a 2016 presidential hopeful and the odds-on favorite to be re-elected governor this fall.

Snyder, on the other hand, is facing a real challenge from Democrat Mark Schauer. You have to wonder if he'd hit the electoral jackpot by taking a page from the Nevada governor's playbook on gay marriage.

Susan J. Demas is Publisher and Editor of Inside Michigan Politics, a nationally acclaimed, biweekly political newsletter. She can be reached at susan@sjdemas.com. Follow her on Twitter here.