"Do you think our kids will ask us why it was a big deal for two men to get married one day?"
Nate asks me this a few nights ago while we're watching a news clip of anti-gay marriage after running out of tivo-ed episodes of the shows we're addicted to.
"Yes."
I instantly respond not peeling my eyes off the television screen where a powder-white- haired man spits and fusses about gay people ruining what marriage is and what marriage does and blah... blah... blah. I've been seeing so much of this lately. I mean, everyone has. But something about it doesn't just get me upset it makes me feel incredibly fortunate. My mom and I had this conversation the other day (We have these conversations like how friends have conversations. See, that was something no one ever told me. Your parents sort of become your friends as you get older. They aren't the ones that remind you how much you cost them to raise or how often you don't make it home. They become really great and have conversations that remind you that getting older(aside from the wrinkles and falling apart thing) is pretty awesome.) where she told me that I've always been the one that's taken the long way. "But that's what makes you interesting. That's what makes you exciting. That's what makes me proud of you."
She not so much talking about the long road of getting what, you know, anyone deserves(ahem, cough...rights). She talking about the stories and the experiences that have taught me all the stuff that some people never learn... or, in the future, some people may never understand.
Maybe that's why I'm a writer. A storyteller. A teacher. A gay man.
I'm living in one of the biggest historical movements, currently, in my lifetime. There are people trying to change the constitution. There are people dedicating their lives to allow me to marry another man. There are people doing everything possible so that one day I can experience that moment my kid to comes up to me and says: Dad, why was it such a big deal to for you to marry Dad?
I'll explain to my kid (while he or she plays on a hover-craft) the story of the how some people chose to take a really long road in life and on October 11th, 2009 in Washington D.C.