This morning one of my dearest friends had an Op-Ed published in the New York Times. Steven W. Thrasher's parents were an interracial couple who could not marry in Nebraska and so they crossed the border to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1958. You can guess where he's going with this...
Here is Steve's Op-Ed.
I want to add a few things about my friend Steve and his parents. I'd call him my "best friend" (after my husband, of course), but he's the kind of person who probably has about a half dozen or more folks referring to him as their "best friend." He was a "bridesman" at my wedding - he called himself a "man-maid" because it was funnier - and he's been a "best man" at least twice and a groomsmen at least once. He's the guy that we all turn to because he's a loyal, reliable and sincere friend. Now, I hope that Steve will be able to turn to his friends when he's ready to marry. It will be our turn to throw him a shower and spend a lot of money for his special day.
Steve and I met as undergraduates at NYU and quickly discovered that we had this Iowa connection. I went to high school in Council Bluffs, Iowa and his parents were married there. Even though Steve grew up in California he is one of the most "Midwestern" people I know. Practical, down to Earth, hard worker...probably because of his parents. His dad was an Air Force veteran from Ohio and his mom was a Methodist Bishop's daughter from Lincoln, Nebraska. It was incredibly unlikey that they would meet and fall in love, but they did.
I knew Steve's parents before they died, especially his mom, and they were the most parenty parents one could imagine. They were ready to love anyone who walked in their door. They went through so many trials in life and were tougher, wiser and kinder because of those trials. I know he has learned from their example and deserves the right to have what they had: a spouse and a house full of kids and grandkids.
Anyway, please read his editorial if you haven't yet.
I'm hoping that someday he can stop saying "Always the Bridesman, never the..." oh, nevermind. Congrats, Steven.