Bitter Sweet
While I'm content that Obama is our new president, tonight's election
results weren't as amazing as they could've been for me. Arizona passed a
gay marriage ban. We already voted down one ban two years ago. How it
managed to get back on the ballot and passed this year likely says a lot
about the number of really determined people here who happen to have a lot
of money.
It's sad because I really love this state. Nearly everything about it is
pleasant and exactly how I want it to be. I've lived in 5 different states
before this and Arizona makes me by far the happiest. I think I'd like to
live here forever, but if I someday fall far enough in love with a woman
that I wanna marry her, then I doubt I will stay here. How can I? I'll
likely have to go somewhere that I imagine is cold and desolate like New
England. And I will go because, as much as I love this place, it's still
just a place. Loving someone, and having a family with her, is more
important than any one place.
So some of you who know me well may be thinking... why do you care? It's no
secret that I don't especially want to get married to anyone, male or
female, ever. And it's true, I don't have the same rose-tinged view of
marriage that most of the world seems to share. But it's still a right that
I think everyone should have, whether or not they decide to utilize it. And
maybe I will wanna get married someday, and maybe I won't. I certainly don't
wanna have the decision made for me by a group of individuals who think
their perception of right and wrong is better than mine. As if they think
that God didn't make me, fearfully and wonderfully, into a woman who can
find peace through loving another woman. Folks who think that any marriage
between a man and a woman, no matter how fractured and flawed, is still
better than any loving relationship between two women. No, I'd rather be
able to decide not to get married because I choose not to, and not because
someone has decided that the way I love is the wrong way.
One thing that keeps me positive is this. There was a time in this country
when interracial marriage was banned in some places. People managed to
justify these rules through a variety of reasons--many of them supposedly
based in morality and Christian principles. And over time, those marriage
rules changed, both legally and socially. And now not only is interracial
marriage legal, it's widely accepted. In fact, Americans' perceptions of
race have changed so much over the years that we've just elected a black
president. And that fact makes me believe that anything can change.
results weren't as amazing as they could've been for me. Arizona passed a
gay marriage ban. We already voted down one ban two years ago. How it
managed to get back on the ballot and passed this year likely says a lot
about the number of really determined people here who happen to have a lot
of money.
It's sad because I really love this state. Nearly everything about it is
pleasant and exactly how I want it to be. I've lived in 5 different states
before this and Arizona makes me by far the happiest. I think I'd like to
live here forever, but if I someday fall far enough in love with a woman
that I wanna marry her, then I doubt I will stay here. How can I? I'll
likely have to go somewhere that I imagine is cold and desolate like New
England. And I will go because, as much as I love this place, it's still
just a place. Loving someone, and having a family with her, is more
important than any one place.
So some of you who know me well may be thinking... why do you care? It's no
secret that I don't especially want to get married to anyone, male or
female, ever. And it's true, I don't have the same rose-tinged view of
marriage that most of the world seems to share. But it's still a right that
I think everyone should have, whether or not they decide to utilize it. And
maybe I will wanna get married someday, and maybe I won't. I certainly don't
wanna have the decision made for me by a group of individuals who think
their perception of right and wrong is better than mine. As if they think
that God didn't make me, fearfully and wonderfully, into a woman who can
find peace through loving another woman. Folks who think that any marriage
between a man and a woman, no matter how fractured and flawed, is still
better than any loving relationship between two women. No, I'd rather be
able to decide not to get married because I choose not to, and not because
someone has decided that the way I love is the wrong way.
One thing that keeps me positive is this. There was a time in this country
when interracial marriage was banned in some places. People managed to
justify these rules through a variety of reasons--many of them supposedly
based in morality and Christian principles. And over time, those marriage
rules changed, both legally and socially. And now not only is interracial
marriage legal, it's widely accepted. In fact, Americans' perceptions of
race have changed so much over the years that we've just elected a black
president. And that fact makes me believe that anything can change.