Shifting Tides

New York has gone to the gays and it is about time. Okay, so not such a dramatic take-over of course, but with the passing and signing into law of the bill to allow civil marriage--not Domestic Partnerships, not Civil Unions but, as Teri so eloquently put it: full-on Marriage, it feels like something major has happened.  Something major has definitely happened.

I read an article yesterday where the journalist predicted full nation-wide marriage equality within ten years.  For someone as seasoned as I, that seems both a long time and not very long at all.  As Teri and I watched the videos and read the blogs and articles yesterday, we couldn't help commenting that this is our lifetime and we are a part of it.  The tide is turning.

In my mind, marriage equality and Don't Ask, Don't Tell are not really gay issues anyway, but Civil Rights issues and it is so past the time when we should have taken care of making this fair and just.  There is still so much work to do and it is taking the engagement of all of us--gays, straight people, government entities and every-day folks to keep pushing forward on Civil Rights.  It is happening in big ways like the vote in New York, but also in little ways--after all, it came down to the deciding votes of just a couple Republicans--people who could have gone either way, but by choosing fairness and justice, they made an incredibly huge difference in the lives of millions.  It is that easy.

I hate to lecture and I realize it sounds as if I am.  Instead, I prefer to just live and act and do the right thing.  Why debate really?  I feel blessed to take up a small place on the historical trajectory of this journey for not just gays and lesbians, but all those who know and love us as the ordinary people we are. Little steps, big leaps, and steady progress--it can be heartbreaking and inspiring all at once.  In the past week, we heard our neighbor over the back fence disparage his son and tell him to "stop running around the yard like a gay-wad" and I had to unfriend someone on Facebook because of constantly painful homophobic remarks--meanwhile thousands of couples in New York state will now be able to get married.  We're still in the midst of it and the battle for what is right is by no means over or won, but as the eternal optimist, I do believe that love will triumph.