Spinning Forward

The world only spins forward. - Tony Kushner, Angels in America

So the world changed a little bit this weekend. And that's, to put it mildly, awesome. My facebook and twitter feeds were flooded with my friends cheering in celebration, either in New York or elsewhere. After all the nonsense in California, it's nice that some states at least are seeing sense.

friendJason in Virginia posted that while he was delighted that the bill had passed in New York, he was still living in Virginia, "THE LAST place in the USA that legalizes it." And it is true that the south in general is far more conservative on issues of sexuality. But I remember when this friend of mine came out to his very southern, very conservative father. And I remember this friend calling me, almost in tears, because his father had accepted him, still loved him, was not holding to the cliche of redneck.

And I reminded my friend that this had just happened: in our own hometown, at our own high school, a boy ran for, and was elected, prom queen - and not in the cruel manner that was recently presented on Glee. In a town small enough that eight years ago didn't even have a Starbucks, we've come this far.



In a world where there is still daily bigotry and violence over an issue this personal, we've come this far. It's not far enough. But damned if we shouldn't celebrate that we've come this far. Far enough that some can see that it really is no one else's business whom people choose to love or marry. This is a bill, that, in my opinion, shouldn't have to be passed. It should be a truth self-evident. To everyone. It should be a non-issue. It's not for anyone else to determine how I live my life, provided I don't harm anyone, nor is it for me to decide how anyone else chooses to live his life. This should be self-evident. This should be obvious. This was one of the founding principles of our country. My mom believes, and I would like to believe with her, that we will see in our lifetime, a world where the very idea that preventing homosexuals from marrying was even an issue will be considered as ludicrous and offensive as the idea of preventing interracial marriage is to us today.

Last night friendAndi saw Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart. In it, a character bemoans the exponentially spreading plague of AIDS and remarks, "Maybe if they'd let us get married to begin with none of this would have happened at all." This scene takes place in February 1983.  When this line was spoken last night it was met with applause.

We've come this far. We need to go further. We can and will. The world only spins forward.

Not in vain the distance beckons. Forward, forward let us range.

Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"

Damn straight. Well, sort of.