Monumental.
That is the only word that has been cycling through my mind today following the
Supreme Court Ruling legalizing gay marriage throughout the states. Simply
monumental. This is so much more than a piece of history, this is the catalyst
of the gay rights movement; this is our Women’s Vote in 1920, this is our Brown
vs. the Board of Education, this is the close of our Civil War. I cannot even
begin to wrap my head around the significance of this vote, this ruling, this
declaration of humanity in the US. There is a peace to be found in finally being
recognized.
Naturally I
had no doubt that SCOTUS would legalize gay marriage, they had the safety net
to do it. When they were first invited to hear the mind-bending arguments
against the California rulings of Proposition 8, only a handful of states had
legalized gay marriage. It was politically and socially unsafe to suddenly be
the trailblazers for equal rights, to force so many undetermined states into
acknowledging what the majority still viewed as an abomination. No one wanted
to be the ones to let gay marriage in. Let’s face it: from 2010 to 2014, doing
the right thing was career suicide for the justices. But no one wanted to be
the ones to extinguish the possibility of equality forever either, because they
knew the change was inevitable. More and more states were moving towards
legalization, and many other countries in the west have been passing equality
laws for years. Waiting and biding their time, the justices shuffled their feet
and turned away petitions to hear any cases on gay marriage until a fair amount
of states had already taken it upon themselves to pass the laws, and when those
who hadn’t were few and far between, they went for the kill. Silencing those
hanging in the balance, the court ruled in favor of the rainbow, and took all
the credit for what most states had to do on their own. But their ruling has eliminated any
possibilities for an opposition to file an appeal, to motion for repeal, to put
a new law on the ballot or to amend a standing one. It’s all said and done.
But this of
course has drawn the little cockroaches from their dark corners to begin their
pouting and spouting of hatred, promises of rebellion, ignoring the ruling,
even some declarations to divorce their straight partners and preachers who
swear they will set themselves on fire (whatever, just call me first so I can
grab the marshmallows). Perpetrators of discrimination are still demanding
tolerance of their own narrow-minded and bigoted views, and others just stand
in noticeably stunned silence over the loss. But as I said to one person
earlier this evening, “you had a good run, 3,000 years of hatred; you need to
accept that your time has come to an end.”
The
suffering that the gay community has endured over the years worldwide has been
unimaginable, including social stigmas, gay bashing, the exclusion from gay
rights and protective anti-discrimination laws, horribly violent gay cure
therapies, and even murders and genocides (it is estimated that anywhere from 10,000-25,000
homosexuals were killed by Hitler’s Third Reich movement). We’ve even been
blamed for horrible events such as the Newton shootings, 9/11, global warming,
and natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Me
personally, I wouldn’t be that offended by the insinuation, I’d be more inclined
to use them as a pick up line: “hey baby, you know that earthquake last night?
That was me.” *WINK*
But all
jokes aside, growing up gay in the US these past few decades has been hell, as
I documented more thoroughly in my previous posts, Though I have no idea how
hard it was five or six decades ago, I realized earlier today that today’s
generation has no idea what we have gone through, the struggle we faced, the
fight we fought so they can have what we never did: security and freedom in who
you are from birth to the grave. Many of my gay clients are out in the open:
they have boyfriends and girlfriends at school, they’re out to parents and
friends, and they’re loved and supported. Some still get bullied, but none of
them have any idea who Matthew Shepard is or the torture he went through for being
himself in the 90s. It's a different time and a different world, many of us had parents who struggled (and continue to struggle) through their acceptance of us. We never would have dared to be out in high school for fear of getting beaten or killed, and mind you, this was in Southern California in 2002, not Alabama 1980; the way things were such a short time ago are distant shadows for today's youth. This morning, one client haplessly raised his hands and
noted “we have equal rights…yay.” Child, this deserves so much more than a
slightly enthusiastic yay. This is historic. And we’ve lived to see it.
We’re equal.
We can marry. Soon we will have total federal protection with anti-discrimination laws. Soon we will be able to adopt children and provide loving homes
to our families all over the US. And with this comes a new revelation: we’re
okay. We are normal. We don’t have to cry anymore. We don’t have to die anymore
in the face of cruel, heart-rending adversity. We’re human, just like everyone
else. And finally, this country thinks so too. The voices of hate have become whispers in the rainbow painted night.
