of joy.
I know there is already a diary on the ruling from a federal judge in Boston declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. But I wanted to write something that is about the feelings this decision causes rather than the details, logic, legal issues.
For as long as I have been political, and that is many many years (I'm almost 62) I've been an advocate of gay rights. I remember when it became a conscious part of my thinking. I was in high school and my friends were the rebels, the civil rights protesters, the Vietnam war protesters.
In 11th grade, our group became friends with a guy a couple of years older than us and he took us to gay gathering places in Dupont Circle (in Washington D.C.) and to a gay bar in a place called North Beach (on the Chesapeake Bay). I was (and am) straight but the only thing that felt uncomfortable in these places was the fact that any guys I was attracted to were unavailable. I remember a fair degree of disappointment since there were some really outstanding-looking guys in the gay bar in North Beach.
Several years later, one of my friends came out (he now has grandchildren with his partner of almost 40 years). As the years passed, the rest of my close high school friends came out. My best woman friend from high school is bisexual. One of our best friends died of AIDS in 1989. I think he was also bisexual, but he might have been gay and just not comfortable with it. And the last of this close group of friends came out after having been married and then divorced.
So gay rights has been a natural issue for me, a topic I have argued and tried to persuade others about for years.
And then, about 5 years ago, my older daughter came out. An already emotional human rights issue became even more personal to me.
So when I opened up Talking Points Memo a little while ago and saw the headlines about this ruling, I just started crying.
Federal Judge Rules Part Of DOMA Unconstitutional
A federal judge ruled today that part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo...
I know that this is only one little step; that when it goes (I'm sure it will) to the Appeals Court it may be reversed. That if it is supported by the Appeals Court (or reversed), it will go to the Supreme Court and with the personnel on that most august body, there's a good chance it will be reversed.
But just today I was talking to my older daughter about how things are changing. She's been feeling discouraged because the other young people she works with are so conservative on gay and gender issues. And because the place she works is a direct descendant of the civil rights movement, she finds it disheartening to have to fight this battle there.
But the ruling today is a huge symbol of change, a huge flashing light that maybe things are going in the right direction. For her sake, for my own, and for the welfare of our country I hope we are.