forward motion

i wasn't going to say anything about it, since everyone else is discussing it and i don't want to bore you... but i may as well add a voice to the clamor of celebration and commentary. not my voice, though. because it doesn't really affect me. i live in pennsylvania, where same-sex couples still cannot marry and, in fact, where there are both a hateful constitutional amendment and an anti-gay-marriage bill floating through our legislature. that's mainly what i found myself thinking about today, and i began to feel very sad and offended. the mere idea that someone would introduce a bill intended to deny equal rights to a minority is so upsetting. so offensive. just... WHY?

at any rate, i'm not really feeling the desire to celebrate, though i am vicariously happy for californians.

such as my dear friend andrea. so i'll let her speak for californians on this monumental occasion. while her cynicism (for which we all love her) will add new and distinct tone to my blog, it's nice to hear a different voice every now and again, eh?

andrea added to the flood of celebratory emails that inundated my inbox today. seriously, i got about 20 e-mails about this one topic. to be honest, though, hers was the only one i read :-) 'cuz i'm laaaaazy.


andrea writes:

Today is a happy day in California. The California Supreme Ct decision in the same-sex marriage case came out at 10am and it's GOOD...really good.

As most of you all know I have serious personal reservations about marriage and I do not believe that it is the right path for me or for a lot of the people that choose it. That being said, I believe VERY STRONGLY in equal rights and I do not believe that one subset of society (straight people in this case) should have the right to make the decision to marry while other groups do not have that right. Whether or not I want to marry or you want to marry, whether or not you are straight or queer or unsure, it is the right to make that decision for yourself that it so important.

Today the Supreme Court of California held that to be true as well when they struck down CA laws stating that marriage could only be between a man and a woman. They not only struck down these laws but they held them to be unconstitutional. This is a historic day for California citizens and although I don't imagine that all of you are quite as nerdy as I am sitting there clicking the refresh button on the CA court website at 9:58am waiting for the decision to come online, and then bawling through it when I realized that we had won, I do hope that you share in some of the joy that I did while reading the decision.

Whatever your thoughts on marriage, remember that there are those people out there that felt so strongly that they deserved and wanted the right to marry that they were willing to subject their personal lives and their relationships to the whims of the courts and the media in order to fight for it. As someone who stood beside couples during that fight in Washington state when the court decision was not so favorable and saw the devastation that withholding that right brought, I feel nothing but joy today and I am proud of California for recognizing the inequality that existed.

I've attached the decision. It's worth the read but if you're not into hundred plus court documents, at least skip to around page 115 and read the decision from there. And remember there is still a lot of work left in this battle. Days like today make me glad [and proud] that I'm going to be a lawyer.

* * *

i love that she wrote she learned that "we had won." in a way, we all have. not just homos and lezzies, but all of us. equality is a wonderful goal. and i guess i can feel that, all the way across the country. maybe it is worth celebrating after all.

on a more personal note, i would also like to mention that andrea is flying across the country in a few days for the sole purpose of visiting me and catching up........oh, and to graduate law school where she began the journey 3 years ago, blah blah blah nobody cares. primarily to see me. i swear. she told me. well.... she implied it.