Random thoughts: From the red zone
111/07/2012 by sapphospeaks
Thankful!
I don’t know about anyone else, but when President Obama mentioned us in his speech last night, I got chills. To hear a President say “gay” in such an inclusive way was thrilling! And then, the icing on the cake, finding out that marriage equality passed in three more states, with another voting down same-sex discrimination. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless!
I live in a very “red” state. Crimson, almost maroon, even. My small city is even redder, if that’s possible. Romney won handily in our county, with 71.3 percent of the vote.
This is Chick-Fil-A-eating, camouflage-wearing, Rebel-flag-waving country, where it’s all about guns and God and “conservative” values tinged by generational racism and homophobia. Never mind that so many of these conservatives have a marriage or two or three in their past, an affair, a few children out of wedlock and/or maybe an alcohol problem. They’re in church every Sunday, except maybe during hunting season, and that makes them good Christians.
It’s easy to get discouraged here, especially when so many people in my community are railing out in a very ugly way on social media, mainly Facebook.
I have nothing against people whose politics are different from mine, but I do have a problem when people post things like, “Well, obviously the morons outnumbered the intelligent people…” or who post pictures of a dog pissing on a campaign sign and the like.
It’s craziness out there.
The upside, if there is one, is that I’ve haven’t heard any grumbling about Washington, Maine and Maryland legalizing same-sex marriage, or about Minnesota, where the amendment to limit marriage to heterosexual couples failed.
But, it’s coming.
Once the shock of President Obama’s reelection wears off, I expect to hear about “the gays” and how we’re bent on destroying family values by…oh yeah, wanting to be a family.
Someday I want to legally marry my partner in the state where we’re going to live. I now have hope that this will one day be possible.
Forward.
Related articles
- HRC President on last night’s LGBT victories. (queerlandia.com)
- Go Inside the Exit Polling of Gay Voters and Marriage Equality (advocate.com)
- Same-Sex Marriage Gains Cheer Gay Rights Advocates (nytimes.com)
- Maine Affirms Gay Marriage In Historic Vote (huffingtonpost.com)
- How gay equality became the new normal of US politics in 2012 | Ana Marie Cox (guardian.co.uk)
- Obama makes history with ‘gay’ reference in victory speech (examiner.com)
I can’t wait for gay marriage to become legal also. There is a great documentary, “For My Wife”. It is on netflix. It is about a woman trying to get the same legal rights for gay couples as married couples after the death of her partner. We shall see what the Supreme Court has to say later this year.