I'm having a difficult time composing my thoughts today. There's a lot swirling around in my head. A lot of this may seem rather random and disconnected. We'll call it "stream of consciousness" and pretend that it's a literary device I've specifically chosen to employ today. This is long and I'm writing it for myself, feel free to skip to the dog pictures.
June is LGBTQ+ Pride month. I'm going to shorten this to "gay pride" because I'm old. Now it's often just referred to as "Pride month" and everyone knows what it means. That brings me to my first point, which is that pride has gone mainstream and I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with that. I mean, it's a good thing, but gay pride used to be a counterculture event for a very marginal segment of society and some of us at least grew very comfortable in our little niche. Gay Pride in D.C. always coincided with Father's Day, which I'm guessing wasn't entirely coincidental but rather was chosen because most of those who would be celebrating Pride had uncomfortable or non-existent relationships with their fathers such that there wasn't a lot of conflict between the two events. That has changed for many and that's a good thing. But we also need to remember that mainstream acceptance is still limited to certain cities in this country. Prejudice, hatred, and even violence toward the gay community is still the norm in much if not most of this country.
Still, it strikes me as a little weird to be wished "happy pride" by well-meaning straight people as if it was a holiday celebrating the gay (etc.) community. To me, pride was a protest event, a coming out event, and I can't quite wrap my head around the change. The last big pride event in Charlottesville had more straight people than queers. I recognize that as a good thing in many ways, but I'm an old queer and I'm having some trouble adapting.
Today, June 26th, is the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court's opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down laws prohibiting same-sex marriage. That decision came on June 26, 2015, but Clay and I had been married since October 9, 2014, and the lawyer in me compels me to explain why and how that happened. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (which includes Virginia) had come to the same decision on or about October 5, 2014. When the Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of that decision, it became the operative law in Virginia, and our state attorney general (Democrat Mark Herring) directed cites and counties to immediately begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Two days later Clay and I applied for a marriage license and became the first same-sex couple in Fluvanna county to be licensed and then married, two days later.
Fast forward seven years to today and I found myself attending a Pride Market at a local brewery (Decipher) along with Kilo (Clay was working). I wasn't sure how well attended the event would be and I wanted to support and thank the brewery for sponsoring it, and I like their beer so we went. The event was very well attended, which I was very happy to see, in spite of my personal, somewhat conflicted, feelings about "mainstream" pride events. It was so well attended that I wasn't too comfortable in the crowd, and Kilo was a handful, so I left after two beers, which actually is my limit anyway.
Two days ago, on Friday, the supreme fucking court released its opinion reversing Roe v. Wade. That was a foregone conclusion the day that Trump was elected because of the appointments he made to the court after the fucking republicans succeeded in blocking Obama's appointment of Merrick Garland. So it really came as no surprise. Outlawing abortion has been the GOP's rallying cry since the days of Ronald fucking Reagan. They now had a 6-3 majority and they wasted no time in rolling back the clock. What has escaped widespread attention, however, was the concurring opinion of Clarence Thomas, the black justice married to the white woman who was instrumental in the January 6th insurrection.
The radical Catholic Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in which he openly signaled the intention to overturn, not just Roe, but other decisions which had established the right of adults to use contraception, the right of adults to engage in consensual sex in the manner of their choosing, and the right of same-sex couples to marry. There are at least five votes on the Supreme Court that would walk back those rights as soon as the proper case is presented to them.
That brings me back to today and my decision about what to wear to the Pride Market today, and the Pride Dog Parade I attended yesterday. I was talking to Erika about this last week and told her that I didn't have much Pride gear for me or the dog. I went through the list of things I had that would identify me as gay: a t-shirt that no longer fits; a hat; a tie-dyed bandana; and a marriage certificate. I wore the hat, put the bandana on the dog, and pinned the marriage certificate to a t-shirt that did fit, wearing it as a point of pride and also as a statement about what's at stake in this country in every election at every level of government.
And here's some other recent Kilo pictures:
Posts
1 comment:
Perfect! Wearing your marriage certificate. This post made me emotional. Thomas is a dangerous, twisted monster-- well other Justices are too but him and that witch of a wife are doing deep deep damage.
Post a Comment