apologies for not posting yesterday and breaking the chain, so to speak. ya see, here in DC, we don’t deal well with precipitation. if there’s rain in the forecast, people start buying up bread and milk at Giant. if there’s snow, people make sure they have enough to keep them going for two weeks. and if there’s ice? whoo, doggies. people who can’t fly out of dulles are left cooling their heels in the podunk that is loudoun county (motto: we’re the fastest growing county in the usa, so please send us more mcmansion builders to clear out the cows!)

i talk about loudoun county, our neighbor to the west, because over the weekend, there was a great cry and gnashing of teeth over a student play about — gasp! — a high school football player’s homosexuality. the loudoun county delegate was horrified, as he believes the high school is being used to promote a homosexual lifestyle. his son-in-law, the loudoun county supervisor (cue Deliverance music here) was equally appalled. parents were emailing all sorts of horrified emails, according to the article. the upside of all of this, of course, is that more people are interested in the play.

my favorite quote in the Post article, though, comes from the Delegate:

“Within our public schools, there is a tendency to encourage homosexual activity, to portray it in a cute or favorable light,” Black said in an interview yesterday. “This is a considerable health hazard right now. If we encourage just one child to experiment and contract the HIV virus, then we have done an enormous disservice to our children.”

i can see it now. a gaggle of girls sitting at dulles town center mall, watching two men hold hands. “oh look,” susie says to sally and friends, “a gay couple — aren’t they just too CUUUUTTE? maybe they can go shoe shopping with us!”

okay, so i’m a little flip there. but seriously, what concerns me most is the idea that these people are so ignorant that they think HIV is a GAY DISEASE. and yes, i am screaming, because i am SO DAMN MAD THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD WHO ARE LIVING IN 1985 AND HAVE NO IDEA THAT HIV IS NOT A GAY DISEASE. i realize they may have their heads up their rears to keep anyone from sticking something else in there, but if they’d take just a moment to remove them and breathe air, they could find out that HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that is taking the lives of plenty of heterosexuals the world over. newsflash: africa, folks. newsflash: southeast asia. newsflash: america. i can (sadly) keep on going.

maybe then, we’d have to have a bit more sex ed in the schools to help out with that issue. but of course, the children of these folks won’t have sex until they’re married at 42, so it’s unnecessary.

so i guess i did talk about marriage after all. huh.

so let me get this straight:

my friend, who has been with her partner for decades, has two children with her partner. if she dies, her partner, the other parent, may have no legal right to those children? so the children may end up with people who they do NOT know as parents, just because citizens cannot get over their petty little phobias about two women having sex? so the children should be irreparably punished for this?

and how is this part of a family-friendly agenda?

at least voters in my home state of NJ aren’t as backward as the yee-fucking-ha backwater citizens of virginia. although this analysis by a fellow alum from my grad school is quite interesting.

my friend kelly suggested that we all write about freedom to marry week, something which is happening this very week as we speak. as someone who married a lot earlier than she ever anticipated and who will be celebrating her 17th wedding anniversary next month (and 20 years together in may), i have had plenty of time to contemplate marriage in many ways. my kneejerk thought about the institution, of course, is that lesbians and gays ought to have the opportunity to experience the same misery we heteros get to experience.

::drum shot::

but seriously, i remember the first time i ever thought about freedom for gays and lesbians to marry legally. when i started work a zillion years ago at AOL, i remember the HR person talking about how the company policies considered people who had been cohabiting for a certain number of years eligible for coverage under an employee’s health policy. initially, i thought only of people who were living together for years and years. but then i wondered — was this extended to same-sex couples? i think it was, as there were several critical employees who i knew to be openly-gay and who were in long-term relationships with their partners. i remember thinking, wow, that’s pretty progressive in a work-for-hire state like VA 😉

and then, when i worked at another very progressive place, i was downright proud of the policies offered vis a vis GLBTs.

so it really smacked me in the head last year when the marriage amendment was ratified in virginia. apparently, we have a lot of intolerant people in this state (no surprise — they just assume arlington and alexandria fall off and re-join DC). borrowed from equality virginia, here are some of the delightful injustices allowed in this state. and i quote:

Virginia lags behind much of the rest of the country in the protections it offers its gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender residents:

• In 2006 Virginia voters ratified an amendment to the Virginia Constitution banning marriage equality for gay and lesbian Virginians, and denying legal relationship recognition for all unmarried couples.
• Earlier, in 2004, the Virginia General Assembly passed the “Affirmation of Marriage Act” (HB 751) banning civil unions and other contract rights for same-sex couples in the state.
• In Virginia, it is permissable to discriminate against someone in employment, housing, banking or public accomodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
• Virginia does not allow second-parent adoptions for unmarried couples, leaving these families and children without critical protections.
• Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression are not included in the state’s hate crimes law.
• Although it is inconsistent with the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Virginia still has not repealed the so-called “crimes against nature” law making sodomy a Class 6 felony.
  

Yeah, Virginia is for Haters, all right.