It's been awhile since I've been around these parts, maybe a year. But I wanted to share a single photograph I took while watching the Boston Pride Parade today, on a wet, rainy one in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same sex marriage.
I'll let the picture do most of the talking below the fold.
There are lots of words to throw around for the reasons for marriage equality. I've used many of them. And lots of words make for Daily Kos posts that are safely within the rules for what makes a diary.
But between two floats of young people dancing and having fun, one crying man walking alone in the rain, carrying a placard he probably made himself, in all his grief, a placard that looks pretty damn heavy to carry for 3 hours of parade route under a cold rain--it says more than words. The Constitutional arguments are important. They're vital. But there's a vital beyond vital, if you understand me, and that's what's represented here. I'm happy to report that the onlookers, there to have a good time, were amazingly somber and respectful of this man's voice, in the small stretch of Tremont Street I could see from my window. But I'm very sorry for the circumstances. I hope most of those 56 years of love and 7 years of legal, recognized marriage in my great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, were lived in good health.
Maggie Gallagher, look at this man. This is a human being, for the love of God.