Thoughts on Gay Marriage

My father was raised in an era where women were expected to be housewives. When he became a teacher in the 1950’s a woman could be fired if it was discovered that she was pregnant. And men received more pay than women because men were the breadwinners. Professionally, women, if they wanted to pursue any type of career at all, were limited to teaching or nursing or secretarial science.

I, as a young girl, remember watching Billy Jean King easily defeat Bobby Riggs on the tennis court. I watched braless women walk arm in arm down the streets screaming for the equal rights amendment. Title IX was passed. In school we read Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. At no point did it ever occur to me that I was not as deserving of all the rights and privileges of a man. And while my father still expected my mother to be obedient, his expectations for his own daughter were different. My father embraced and supported the fact that opportunity was there for me for the taking. My generation represented a new age.

President Obama has publically voiced his support of gay marriage. And his decision making on the matter was distinct---and ultimately spot-on. He said that his daughter Sasha and Melia had friends with same sex parents. His daughters saw no difference in the parenting or the relationship between the adult guardians of their friends. The president said that observing that it was his daughters expectation that same sex parents had the same rights and privileges as their own made him think more deeply about gay marriage. His daughters represented a new age of thought--different than from the time in which he was raised. He realized that marriage between two people—homosexual or hetereosexual—deserved equal rights under the law.

And whether you like the president or not, are a republican or not, religiously conservative or not, the next generation will live in an age where all persons will have marital equality. Agree or disagree the time is now. We live in a world with few walls.  Transparency drives thought. All men—and women—of every race, color, creed and sexual persuasion—are created equal---and soon to be---under the law. We cannot escape Thomas Jefferson’s words much longer. These truths are self-evident. And even my father, who would have not have agreed, would have understood why.