Today in Homophobic Voting
Today bigots in North Carolina managed to scare their neighbors into voting for the odious Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment that denies equality to same-sex couples in the state. Yet, I am calm, verging on the insouciant.
Not long ago I had occasion to write this:
When I started writing fiction, in 1998, it was a different century and America was a different country. The sex that I depicted in my writing was still illegal in a third of the states, and my partner and I had no inkling that we might ever get married, something we accomplished in 2010 in the District of Columbia.
The setbacks like this are dispiriting, but they're feeling far less than permanent to me. I'm beginning to take quite personally the hateful opinions of loud-mouthed homophobes and ultrachristians who think their god compels them to bad-mouth me and my marriage as stridently as they can. I believe that this will pass withing these homophobes lifetimes, and then they will have to look me in the eye and take credit for their own hatred and fear.
To them I snap my fingers and say: "Honey, Isaac and I have *already* redefined marriage!"
The pace of change for LGBT people is so rapid I feel like I can imagine what it felt like for my grandparents to watch the progress of aviation early in the 20th century. I feel optimistic.