Comfort

We walked over to the Library for the celebratory rally last evening. Waves of emotions, sitting among the newly married, recently given a freedom long sought. Yes, it is good news. Although, apparently, I wasn't the only one a bit baffled about how it was done, or reported.



"We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws. Civil marriage is one of the cornerstones of our way of life. It allows individuals to celebrate and publicly declare their intentions to form lifelong partnerships, which provide unparalleled intimacy, companionship, emotional support, and security. The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual's life. Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance."

-4th Circuit Court.

I really can't get my head around those who are so adamantly opposed to something that need never touch their own personal lives, but does deny safety and security to others. But, like people who married outside their skin color, it makes them uncomfortable. I remember when I was first at college in Detroit, seeing a b&w couple was strange. Took me a little while to adjust my expectations. Never did I think they were in the wrong, or that I should make them change to adapt to comfort my sensibilities. And those sensibilities changed amazingly fast. I would be among those couples at times.

I was raised with all the polite and rationalized prejudices of my parent's time. I got over them. Leave people alone if they aren't bothering you. Directly. Not-looking-quite-right isn't bothering.

Harvey Milk had the right idea, let 'em see, invite them in, come out. Fastest way to change attitudes is to make it normal, usual, and the eyes adapt, as to changes in light.

The crowd at the rally was the most normal looking bunch of people ever. I didn't catch it on camera, but the dog kept mugging for the audience.



The joy surged around. Amazing.



Oh, and this.

Reinhardt concludes:

"Idaho and Nevada's same-sex marriage proscriptions are sex based, and these bans do serve to preserve 'invidious, archaic, and overbroad stereotypes' concerning gender roles. The bans therefore must fail as impermissible gender discrimination."