Gay Marriage is, by Definition, a Happy Union

Last week’s incredible SCOTUS ruling made me think about the time we took our three-year-old daughter to her first wedding. She was especially intrigued by the whole thing because she was the flower girl. As you can imagine, there were many questions and a lot of discussion about the specifics both before and after the event. It’s now a couple of weeks later and she has her dolls getting married, her friends getting married, her dinner vegetables getting married…

She doesn’t seem to discriminate between animal, mineral or vegetable. There’s always a flower girl and of course, the most important thing is always at the forefront. The couple in question love each other!

Next month we’re taking our daughter to another wedding. We live in a state that has recently made great strides in terms of marriage equality. Our friends Joel and Jonathan are getting married after nineteen years of being together.

While they’re thrilled at the possibility, one which they never bothered to dream of, they said that the main reason for pursuing a legal marriage now is for those who may follow in their footsteps. It’s to show support for leadership that has pushed through the phobias and recognized love as being the inevitable force that it is. It’s to show support for the children who may not have to hide or pretend or feel shame or be ostracized the way were for so many years of their lives. It’s to keep the momentum going for gay rights so that every person can love without fear, so that whomever someone loves does not compromise that person’s wellbeing.

Personally, attending Joel and Jonathan’s wedding will be one of the more profound experiences in my life. Though she may never know it, it will be one of the most profound experiences of our daughter’s life as well. With all that is wrong and crazy and discouraging about having a child in 2013, that she may grow up in a world where the freedom to love is the rule fuels hope. That tolerance and acceptance and support are expanding to include more of us has got to be a good thing. That the three-year-old sleeping beside me may never know the reality of the historic hatred hurled towards homosexuals is awesome, in the true sense of the word!

Tonight, before bed, our daughter staged a wedding between her Elmo doll and her Big Bird doll. My husband was the flower girl. Amen.

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