AT LAST - Part 2
Ever since President Obama came out for same sex marriage earlier this week I’ve been thinking of my friends and lovers who died early on in the AIDS plague. People can dismiss Obama for waiting too long, for playing politics, for whatever reason - but since his announcement I have wished that I could bring back all my brothers for one day because they would be astonished at this news, as am I. Back in the late 70s to early 80s gay marriage wasn’t even on our radar. What was on our radar was sex and lots of it but in our private moments, when the bushes and bathhouses and bars were exhausted, what most of the men I loved back then wanted was someone to love, to share his life with and be with. At least I think that’s true. It’s what I wanted. That’s why I wish them all back for a day, today, to lounge around on my patio and porch, and see what they would have to say about gay marriage.
I can see several of them being crazy by how “legitimate” we’ve become but you have to remember we came of age in the 70s and the world was our private pearl, to hang on to and polish and no one, no one, was going to take it away. Gay marriage was as foreign to us as condoms.
I wonder if AIDS had never happened and if all the gay men who died because of it were still alive, moving through life like I am right now - would “gay rights” have proceeded more quickly? There were so many of us, the numbers are astounding - you need only ponder all the deaths to realize that the gay male population bubble would have been huge but would the numbers alone have been enough? Along with the passion? Along with the courage and creative energy? That’s why I wish I could call them back for a day - well, not really, I want them back for good - so we can live our lives out to their natural end, together.
It makes me swell with pride that a President of the United States, President Obama, said he was, said he was, well. . .
You know what, I can’t go on. I’m too emotional, I’m crying, and I want to honor that.
More to come. . .
May 26th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Do you think it is minutely possible that Obama used this sanction for gay marriage as a political ploy?
August 28th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
What are you talking about? Don’t let your dislike of Obama affect your common sense.
August 28th, 2012 at 7:22 pm
P.S. And interesting how you focus on that particular point when the bulk of my post was about male friends of mine who died during the beginning of the plague years and what they would think about having a President who supports gay marriage.