A Gay in the Life: How a proposition ate my cynicism
source: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/08/06/a-gay-in-the-life-how-a-proposition-at...
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I’m not political.
I can’t cite court cases; I can’t argue about the judicial system or discuss the left and right. (I couldn’t even tie my shoes until I was 9. I was lucky to know my right foot from my left.)
But I can tell you what the Proposition 8 ruling means to me. It may not sound fancy, it may not hold up in court, but it’ll be honest.
It means that I have hope.
I’m a cynic on the surface, a softie beneath. My initial reaction was one of joy — if it could happen there, if some judge in California could rule that denying someone like me the right to marry was unconstitutional, it could happen here. But not long after, I was over it. The joy left, the cynicism crept in, and I started complaining that I still couldn’t get married — no matter what happened in California.
I decided to post a Top 8 list. The Top 8 things the Proposition 8 ruling was like. It included things like being in love on the Titanic — you’re in love, but you’re still not on a lifeboat like that snooty rich lady over there. It included things like Ariel, The Little Mermaid, having a statue of Eric but being stuck with fins while everyone else had legs. It even included my roommate deciding to get rid of the less hairy of her two cats to ease my allergies.
But in the end, I wasn’t happy with it. I wasn’t happy with not being happy. I couldn’t throw up my defensive, I-still-can’t-get-married walls. Because somewhere on the west coast, some gay man who fell in love and wed while it was legal in good ol’ CA was allowed to do so. He believed, as much as I believe, that every time he crawled into bed with the man of his dreams, he was lucky. That he’d found the man he wanted to love for as long as he could, that he wanted to sleep next to, wake up beside, and grow gray with. (Incidentally, sideburns, I’m watching you. I still remember the stunt you pulled last week — and so do my tweezers.)
READ THE REST AT: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/08/06/a-gay-in-the-life-how-a-pr...
I can’t cite court cases; I can’t argue about the judicial system or discuss the left and right. (I couldn’t even tie my shoes until I was 9. I was lucky to know my right foot from my left.)
But I can tell you what the Proposition 8 ruling means to me. It may not sound fancy, it may not hold up in court, but it’ll be honest.
It means that I have hope.
I’m a cynic on the surface, a softie beneath. My initial reaction was one of joy — if it could happen there, if some judge in California could rule that denying someone like me the right to marry was unconstitutional, it could happen here. But not long after, I was over it. The joy left, the cynicism crept in, and I started complaining that I still couldn’t get married — no matter what happened in California.
I decided to post a Top 8 list. The Top 8 things the Proposition 8 ruling was like. It included things like being in love on the Titanic — you’re in love, but you’re still not on a lifeboat like that snooty rich lady over there. It included things like Ariel, The Little Mermaid, having a statue of Eric but being stuck with fins while everyone else had legs. It even included my roommate deciding to get rid of the less hairy of her two cats to ease my allergies.
But in the end, I wasn’t happy with it. I wasn’t happy with not being happy. I couldn’t throw up my defensive, I-still-can’t-get-married walls. Because somewhere on the west coast, some gay man who fell in love and wed while it was legal in good ol’ CA was allowed to do so. He believed, as much as I believe, that every time he crawled into bed with the man of his dreams, he was lucky. That he’d found the man he wanted to love for as long as he could, that he wanted to sleep next to, wake up beside, and grow gray with. (Incidentally, sideburns, I’m watching you. I still remember the stunt you pulled last week — and so do my tweezers.)
READ THE REST AT: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/08/06/a-gay-in-the-life-how-a-pr...
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- tags:
- LGBT, Gay Marriage, Proposition 8, CLGBT, 1 more
