How far we've come
Jan. 1st, 2014 10:28 amI caught some of the Rose Parade this morning, including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's float. The AHF float was a giant wedding cake topped with live cake toppers: A gay couple and an officiant. According to the parade broadcast, Dan and Aubrey have been together for twelve years, and about 9:30 this morning, they were married while floating in the parade, before hundreds of thousands of people and countless masses of flowers (best wedding floral arrangements ever!). The KTLA broadcasters, Stephanie Edwards and Bob Eubanks, announced the AHF float, and the wedding ceremony, just like all the other parade floats, commenting on the float's design and theme (the AHF float won a parade trophy), giving a little background on the couple, mentioning how getting married in the Rose Parade after being together for over a decade perfectly suits the parade theme of "Dreams Come True," and wishing them congratulations. They treated it like a normal, run of the mill event, no mention of politics or how "controversial" same-sex marriage is, nothing about Prop. 8 or Perry or the couple being gay, just wished the happy couple their best and moved onto the next float as if this were a perfectly ordinary (i.e. straight), public wedding.
I just -- I remember the tail days of 2008, the depression hanging over SF, the candlelight vigils, the demonstrations, the search for understanding in how Prop. 8 could've happened, and the need for a new way to go on. I remember the thoughtlessly cruel glee on the face of the woman who saw me holding "No on Prop. 8" signs on Election Day, and how she laughed and shouted, "You won't like the way I voted!" at me. I remember the couple that told me they were on their way to get married right that afternoon, because they didn't know if they'd still be allowed to once the ballots were in and Prop. 8 was decided. I remember so much more, and to see this wedding celebrated in a California tradition, a public spectacle, and hear it treated as ordinary and simply an occasion for congratulations by the broadcasters is the best start to the New Year that I've ever had.
Many congratulations and best wishes for a long and happy life together to Aubrey & Dan. How far we've come. There were kids at the New Year's Eve party last night who will hopefully grow up in a world where same-sex marriage has always been legal and same-sex couples will be as ordinary to them as their cross-sex parents. To move from being ostracized and vilified to being so accepted that there is no need to comment on the act of acceptance, is part of the progress I fought for all those years ago, and to see it happening is more than I could've imagined. 2014, hail and well met!
I just -- I remember the tail days of 2008, the depression hanging over SF, the candlelight vigils, the demonstrations, the search for understanding in how Prop. 8 could've happened, and the need for a new way to go on. I remember the thoughtlessly cruel glee on the face of the woman who saw me holding "No on Prop. 8" signs on Election Day, and how she laughed and shouted, "You won't like the way I voted!" at me. I remember the couple that told me they were on their way to get married right that afternoon, because they didn't know if they'd still be allowed to once the ballots were in and Prop. 8 was decided. I remember so much more, and to see this wedding celebrated in a California tradition, a public spectacle, and hear it treated as ordinary and simply an occasion for congratulations by the broadcasters is the best start to the New Year that I've ever had.
Many congratulations and best wishes for a long and happy life together to Aubrey & Dan. How far we've come. There were kids at the New Year's Eve party last night who will hopefully grow up in a world where same-sex marriage has always been legal and same-sex couples will be as ordinary to them as their cross-sex parents. To move from being ostracized and vilified to being so accepted that there is no need to comment on the act of acceptance, is part of the progress I fought for all those years ago, and to see it happening is more than I could've imagined. 2014, hail and well met!
