Gay Marriage Legal in New York

When news broke late this evening of thegay marriage vote in New York State, I was reminded of the Bryan Adams song.

I have been to gay weddings before; I have known many friends who have crossed state lines and tried to sew up their union in holy matrimony before the illusive right could possibly be taken away. I remember all the stories leading up to this moment and I remember all the grief I'd hear from all my theatre queens who felt and pleaded and fell short and kept going.

The prominent gay marriage in my back-story is two of my best friends in the world; Bob and John. They were together for years and years; John is the perfect bit of balance and common sense to Bob's zealousness but they are both a scream to have around. I have even written about them for Associated Content before in 2009; you can read the articleHERE.

So this gay marriage fiasco isn't really "new" to me and undoubtedly it's not an argument that's going away any time soon. Even though New York has given the green light to same sex marriage, that doesn't mean that there aren't still a large contingency of more conservative minded folks who disagree with the premise.

To those folks, I say: what the hell business is it of yours?

The whole "sanctity of marriage" garbage just falls right out of my sphere of influence. I look at Bob and John as the perfect example. They've been through their ups and downs but in as long as they've been together I've seen countless relatives, friends, and other acquaintances of mine blow through husband after wife like you wouldn't believe.

But it's not just Bob and John who sit as the picture of gay relations. It's my friends TJ and Larry. It's Vinny and Joe. I don't mean to drag out names. The bottom line is that everybody is just looking for happiness. And love. And what's wrong with that? If you find it in a church or you find it in your work or you find it in healing or you find it in the flag twirling, marching band color guard; who cares?

I put out a call for gay marriage to my Facebook friends as soon as I heard the news. Immediately I got responses. I guess everyone had been watching the same Dateline episode that I was. Anyway, old friend of mine; straight as an arrow Phil. We were in the Cub Scouts together; his dad was our troop leader and helped us win the Pinewood Derby. His dad also; in southern Fairfield County Connecticut had season tickets to the Bills in Buffalo New York (for at least one season, I think) and used to go up every Sunday in the dead of winter to see their home games.

Anyway, Phil says to my call for a "hell yeah" "HELL YEA!!!" and then he continues "When like over half of all straight marriages end in flames (no pun intended) and most of my gay friends have been together as long as my wife and I why should they not get the same privileges as me!!!"

Phil boiled it down to its most essential. People all love with their hearts. They love with their instincts. They give love to get love and when they get love they want to keep love. Society has created these barriers to entry for those who want to love with legal benefits and it's a shame. Heterosexual couples piss all over these rights without any regard; homosexual couples just want so desperately to gain access to this exclusive club.

If gay marriage doesn't come up for a nationwide referendum this year, I won't be surprised. But if gay marriage doesn't become the regular in my lifetime; if we're still having the same fights over the same rights in 50 years; that's one of those futures I don't want to be around to see.

ThatBryan Adams song that reminded me of gay marriage? Listen up; gay marriage is comin' to get ya.

Sources:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/gay-marriage-legislation-marriage-equality-reaction-react-124523814.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1787216/prop_8_the_story_of_bob_and_john_and.html?cat=9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP4Nnek6DCo