To celebrate the end of DOMA, we bought roses from the corner deli.
Except when you consider the trajectory of the country as a whole, celebrating for more than a few minutes felt a bit self-centered. I remember how, maybe a decade or so ago, I was having dinner with some fellow non-heterosexual men and I made the argument that it was possible to envision a future in which women’s legal rights were more threatened than those of gay men. They were offended and never spoke to me again. (Admittedly, I can be — ummm — dogmatic and obnoxious in such contexts, given my Aries temperament and legal training.)
After this week, however — when you consider the juxtaposition of DOMA, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and the extreme anti-abortion measures being proposed/enacted in Texas and Ohio and who knows where else — I regret to say that a rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that one rising boat does not make a rising tide.
Federal marriage rights now seems like a fait accompli; wouldn’t it be nice to say the same thing about so many other rights/protective measures that have been rolled back in the past forty years? Or to know that 1 percent of the country’s population did not possess 99 percent of its wealth? Let’s celebrate, but let’s not pretend that — as far as the country is concerned — we’re stepping into a new dawn.
