All-Star Tuesday

Caught a bit of the Showtime documentary Same Sex America this evening. It focuses on several couples who were among the queer folks who traveled to Massachusetts — which I, as a kid, referred to as “Massa-two-setts” — to get married last year when the state boldly decided to allow gay marriages.

The show made me smile, mostly; it was neat to see how joyful people were. My favorites were these two white-haired women, probably in their seventies, who had been together for God-only-knows how long, who were finally able to have their union recognized as a legal marriage.

In Massatwosetts, anyway, where apparently more people than not are unafraid of what allowing two consenting adults (who just so happen to be homosexual) to wed will do to the “sanctity of marriage.” To the “bonds of holy matrimony.”

Several months ago, this whole issue had me in tears whenever I would allow myself to think about it for too long. Nowadays, it simply tears my ass with boredom.

I think marriage, in theory, is a beautiful thing. I believe that most people, in their hearts, want to find that one person to be with, to start a family with, to share their lives with. Obviously, if a man and a woman want to have children, it makes sense to get married; it also makes sense for two men or two women who want to have children together to be able to get married. (OK, I acknowledge the fact that somewhere, somehow, they are going to need a little outside help along the way ... but the desire to have and raise children is certainly not something that is exclusively a heterosexual trait.)

Take the kid thing out of the issue entirely, however, and you still have the basic premise: Two adults who love each other and want to be legally committed to one another should have that right. Period. The notion that a gay marriage undermines the sanctity or the holiness of a straight or regular or normal marriage is, as The Lovely might say, “a buncha crap.” And yes, I know there are people who can quote Scripture (and verse!) on how God thinks fags are sinners — and again, I find this to be a highly selective and potentially dangerous (and probably quite wrong) practice, as there are all kinds of archaic rules throughout the Old Testament that practically no one today could ever hope nor be expected to follow, as I may have mentioned in my Ten Commandments tangent.

And granted, it has been a while, but I remember reading a whole lotta stuff about love in that New Testament. Matter of fact, it seems to me that love is what Jesus was all about: “Love your neighbor as yourself” — which is such an excellent way to approach the world, every day ... although, admittedly, if you have no self-esteem whatsoever, then, well ... OK, maybe it’s not so easy to love anyone ... but still, even if you hate yourself, I don’t think that gives you the right to hate everyone else, too!

: )

Spare me the “love the sinner, hate the sin” crap, though. If you’re gonna love me, then love me unconditionally — no secretly thinking you’re any better or any more sin-free than I am just because I like girls and you like boys. And don’t tell me my love could ever be less real or less important or less legal, of all things, than anyone else’s.

Several months ago, an acquaintance of mine was discussing the topic of gay marriage. He claimed that he was in favor of something called a civil union but did not think gay people should be allowed to get married in the traditional sense (i.e. in a church). Moreover, he said he simply could not understand why marriage was an issue with so many homosexuals.

Strangely enough, not long before that, this same guy had married the woman he had been living with for the past several years. Apparently, he had, at some point, realized that he and his girlfriend loved each other and wanted to make their commitment legal, so they got married. Why could he not understand how any two adults would want to do the same?

I found this perplexing and odd. And highly annoying.

In my heart, I do not believe that allowing gay people to get married is something that hurts the institution of marriage. I believe that things like divorce — caused by things like infidelity and jealousy and boredom and miscommunication (or a complete lack of communication) and incompatibility and just the plain, simple, inescapable fact that sometimes, two people outgrow each other — are what hurt the institution of marriage.

And, hey: I’m not even saying I want to be institutionalized!

However, don’t try to tell me I should not have the right to.

: )

This is a bloom from my runt geranium, the one that’s had only a couple of flowers this summer.



For some reason, I am finding it difficult to shoot the color red. I mean, it looks cool, but it also tends to bright-out or something.