It can sometimes be difficult to understand the struggles of the minority when you are a member of the majority. Let’s face it: Your frame of reference is not suited to empathize, even if you do sympathize. You see, I have been a marriage equality supporter for quite some time. I can’t pretend to know the pain that same-sex couples have endured as they have been denied what should be a fundamental right to marry.
But this ideal unexpectedly motored ahead recently. I have just been working up the courage to write something about it because I don’t consider myself all that great with words.
I am a husband and father in what could be coined your “typical” American household. We are a close-knit core…and we are rarely apart.
…until a couple of weekends ago. You see, my wife and children visited family out of state for quite some time…and I was home because I had to work. I was reminded of what life was like before I was fortunate enough to marry my sweetheart…to tell her every day after that how much I adored her as my wife.
And then I thought about gay couples…struggling to secure the same rights that I have been fortunate enough to have just because I married someone of the opposite sex.
I began to imagine my world had someone told me I had no right to marry my wife.
I couldn’t breathe…I wept like a child. It was as though my whole world disappeared before my eyes because I couldn’t marry the person who meant more to me than any other I had met. It was the worst, most empty feeling I had ever felt.
...and this was just the IDEA of not being allowed to marry my sweet baby. Imagine the hurt and pain of actually enduring this! I can't even begin to imagine.
I am not intelligent enough to understand the constitutional and legal language involved as this fight for marriage equality rages on, but I do know this:
Every couple has the right to feel the love, warmth and ecstasy that accompanies marrying the person of your dreams. Every person has the right to realize the many benefits that come with that marriage.
But most of all, every person has the right to avoid the hurt, disrespect, discrimination and frustration that takes place when they are told they cannot marry the person they love.
You lawmakers and judges out there, I know that some progress has been made to turn marriage equality into a right for all…but the progress is slow and painstaking for those who feel the hurt of this discrimination. Please make marriage equality happen…NOW...and not for politics, but because it’s a stain on our nation and it is long past time to make it right.