halfway there by terry ernest
MARRIAGe
MeANS
Same Sex
for everyone
If you fight the urge to shout “cheeseburger… cheeseburger...Pepsi, no Coke” been one quality act of violence to remember that day.
when sitting at the counter of your favorite diner, you might be halfway there. Good old Mrs. McCleary, my 6th grade teacher loved to compare and con-
Here we are, the last year of the first decade of the third millennium and not trast… compare and contrast. Well here’s one for her. Thirty some years ago our
unlike the myriad celebrities and political pundits who never run out of exacting numbers were smaller but our convictions were clear. When we gathered to dem-
words and reflective sentiment; I once again turn back the clock and humbly wax onstrate or protest our agenda was solid and our effect aggressive and steadfast.
nostalgic. This past November, when the San Diego gay community joined count- At the end of the day we licked each others wounds or reveled in our victory but
less others in demonstrating our resolve for equal rights under the law, I marched were always satisfied with the strength of our message. This latest protest march
with the crowd from Hillcrest to Downtown. Any similarities to the protests I in San Diego seemed more like a party parade. Half the guys were busy on the
remember from the late Sixties and Seventies were ostensibly few. Here we had phone or cruising for happy-hour partners while a good chunk of the L-Word
virtually no confrontation, only rare moments of discernable anger and abso- contingency was busy planning their strategy for the next blue light special on
lutely no full-frontal nudity. Boring! Where were the irate taunts and single digit power tools at Home Depot. I could tell because the bubbles over their heads said
salutes to the Prop. 8 proponents? They were apparently calmed by the repetitive things like ‘Makita, Dremel and Black & Decker.’ While the turnout was substantial
chanting of that mindless mantra, ‘What do we want? [equal rights] When do we the tone was only marginally impressive and overall the equality issue that day
“This latest protest march in San Diego seemed more like a party parade.”
want it? [now].’ And where was our righteous indignation at our newly-elected seemed much more important to the women than the men.
officials who waited until after the elections to confirm their opposition to the gay Perhaps it is not the time span between the generations we should be
agenda? Oops, that one got away. comparing but rather the substance of our agendas. In 1970 we were fighting
In a downtown Chicago Gay Rights protest march in 1970, I remember at least for our right to be queer in a deep dark world of homophobia, where the public
two buff male beauties jaunting out of the throng at every turn to greet the acknowledgement of our existence was limited to water cooler snickering and
paparazzi and TV crews with some fine examples of gay anatomy and physiology. the offensive F-word; Charles Nelson Reilly notwithstanding. Fortunately we
Those boys had the network censors working overtime to keep the news reels have made great strides since then in both social status and role models. Today
family-oriented. Did we have anything like that here? I don’t think so. Let’s see! the salient issue seems to be equal rights with same-sex marriage at the top of the
About one out of every 10 boys in our march had a Chihuahua neatly stuffed in a list. In 1970, a gay man and same-sex were never uttered in the same sentence let
designer bag and another one out of 10 sporting a blue tooth headset so as not alone marriage, how hetero. The gay cultural evolution seems to be hellbent on
to impede sipping red bull while texting. We did have a Father Guido Sarducci establishing peer status with the social norm instead of blazing trails for a better
look alike in the front row which helped balance the secular tone but he rather way. While I am resolute with monogamy, the concept of same-sex marriage is
faded when the Rockettes mugged for the film crews at every intersection. It was rather frightening. But who knows, perhaps those fears will be mitigated in the
wonderfully entertaining but not particularly effective. Hours later when the future when the definition of marriage includes inviting the gardener and the
protest march rounded the last corner downtown I was hot, tired and longing for pool boy in for services paid by nature’s credit card, safely of course.
a martini. And if that blonde twink on the sidewalk with the megaphone would If you ever wondered if Uncle Arthur’s shenanigans were prompted by his
have prompted me to chant one more time… well let’s just say there might have secret lust for Derwood, you’re probably halfway there too.
40 RAGE monthly | FEBRUARY 2009
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