The Next Generation
I am gay. My boy is not. But we talk about my being gay, what it's like to be gay, issues that affect the gay community. He's really rather a thoughtful and insightful kid.
When he was 13 or so, we had a birthday party for him and he, about 5 of his friends and I sat around playing cards. Around about this time, they bunch of them had gone online and become "ordained" by some church - you know the ones. You used to be able to send away to be ordained by cutting out something on the back page of a comic book and sending it in. Same idea only more high tech.
Anyway, we were sitting and playing cards and the boys all said "Hey! If you want to get married, *I* can marry you." And they started making plans for who was going to perform the ceremony. Until one of them piped up and said to my boy "Dude, the problem isn't the ceremony, it's the license. She can't get one yet."
I thought this was fascinating. Not only was there no question in their minds that I would be able to get married some day, it wasn't a big deal for them. They didn't see the difference between my getting married or any one of their parental units getting married.
And I think that's true of mostly anyone under the age of about 30. Most of the resistance to same-sex marriage, or acceptance of gay relationships in general, comes from those 50. So, sad as it is to say, I think that in the next 30 or 40 years gay and lesbian relationships will become far more widely accepted... even, dare we hope, disregarded as a non-issue.
Those who've come before me have made tremendous strides and gained tremendous ground. I have a friend who's 50 who never thought that she would see legalized same sex marriage in her lifetime. Perhaps also in her lifetime, we'll see the rest of the world catch up to us to the point where I'll be able to walk down any street at any time holding my wife's hand and not have to worry about getting beat up.
When he was 13 or so, we had a birthday party for him and he, about 5 of his friends and I sat around playing cards. Around about this time, they bunch of them had gone online and become "ordained" by some church - you know the ones. You used to be able to send away to be ordained by cutting out something on the back page of a comic book and sending it in. Same idea only more high tech.
Anyway, we were sitting and playing cards and the boys all said "Hey! If you want to get married, *I* can marry you." And they started making plans for who was going to perform the ceremony. Until one of them piped up and said to my boy "Dude, the problem isn't the ceremony, it's the license. She can't get one yet."
I thought this was fascinating. Not only was there no question in their minds that I would be able to get married some day, it wasn't a big deal for them. They didn't see the difference between my getting married or any one of their parental units getting married.
And I think that's true of mostly anyone under the age of about 30. Most of the resistance to same-sex marriage, or acceptance of gay relationships in general, comes from those 50. So, sad as it is to say, I think that in the next 30 or 40 years gay and lesbian relationships will become far more widely accepted... even, dare we hope, disregarded as a non-issue.
Those who've come before me have made tremendous strides and gained tremendous ground. I have a friend who's 50 who never thought that she would see legalized same sex marriage in her lifetime. Perhaps also in her lifetime, we'll see the rest of the world catch up to us to the point where I'll be able to walk down any street at any time holding my wife's hand and not have to worry about getting beat up.
posted by Blue Blankie at 6:09:00 PM
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