To Love!

I really, really, really hope that by the time my boys are old enough to read these ramblings of mine, they'll come to this post and say, "Wow. It sure was different back in the old days. Back then, gay people in most states weren't allowed to marry. Can you believe that? Times sure have changed for the better!"

Crossing my fingers...

After all, for all I know, my sons may be gay. And, if they are in loving, committed relationships and want to get married and start families with their chosen partners, I want them to have the same legal right to do so that I had to marry their Dad. I want them to share in the joy we felt on the day we committed ourselves to one another, completely, in front of the people we love the most. The day we became a family. And, no, I don't believe a "civil commitment ceremony" is the same thing. If it was, then gay couples wouldn't be fighting for the right to legally marry one another, now would they?

I mean, imagine for a moment, that you are engaged to be married to the person you have chosen as your lifemate. You can't wait to be legally joined in marriage. Suddenly, a judge decrees that you can't do that:

"Ahem, sorry, folks. A bunch of other people, who will actually be totally unaffected in any tangible way by your marriage, think it's wrong for you to marry. They feel threatened by the two of you declaring your love and commitment in this way, and they're going to band together to block your right to do just that. They seem to think that it undermines their own marriages in some way. Some sort of moral issue. Could be insecurity, I'm not really sure. Regardless, we're not gonna let you get married. We will, however, let you have a commitment ceremony. It's really the same thing, so no worries, OK?"

Yeah, right. You wouldn't be satisfied with that. If it was you, you'd fight for your right to marry the person you love. And you would be right to fight.

I just don't get it. Especially when so many of the folks who so adamantly oppose gay marriage base their argument on religious principals. Whatever happened to "love thy neighbor as thyself?" What about acceptance and respect and charity and freedom and the right to pursue happiness and all of those other values that are, supposedly, also so highly valued by these same folks? I just can't believe, in our modern world, with all that has been scientifically proven about the biology of human sexuality, that there are still people who can look at a committed, stable, loving, gay couple and say, "Nope. No way. You can't get married. Sorry. You're different. You make me uncomfortable. You threaten my beliefs about marriage, so I'm gonna say NO!" These are not the dark ages, here. We're not burning depressed women at the stake for being witches, anymore. We know the world is round, not flat. Come on, people. It's a brave, new world. Let's embrace it, in all of its wondrous, and ever-changing complexity. Let's evolve!

So, to my sons, who I love more than anything else in the world...I hope you're reading this and saying, "Wow. I'm so glad the world isn't like it was when Mom wrote this post."

To love!