On the events of June 26th, 2015
This blog was designed from the beginning to be non political. Indeed, one of its primary goals was to be a safe haven from politics, a quotidian quiet spot to consider words and pictures and odd little funny or reflective things, a small place, a soap bubble. But even so, there are times when public events are so powerful that they shake even a small place.
Today I am thinking of all my friends, neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances, past and present, in the LGBTQ communities, people who have done so much to enrich my life (not least by making me question my own comfortable assumptions). I think particularly of several of the dearest friends of my distant youth, who are not here to see this day since they died long ago in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s.
I think of the internet, that great creator and servant of communities, which I consider to be responsible in some small part for the incredible speed of this great change, and of the courage of all the people whose coming out, and living out, has definitely been responsible for the rest of it.
And I am grateful for all of it, people and memories and community and courage. If you had asked me thirty years ago if this would ever happen, I would have laughed. More recently, I told someone I trust that I thought it would take fifteen more years at least, if not twenty. I predicted a slow, harrowing state by state fight, not a broadside action by SCOTUS. That was five years ago. Things are moving fast, and let’s hope some momentum can carry into other efforts for all kinds of civil rights.
But for now, let’s be small again, and take a moment to think of all who have particular reason to celebrate tonight, and all who have gone before.
(Read an excerpt from Justice Kennedy’s beautifully written majority opinion, and find a link to a PDF of the entire ruling, here.)
