Okay, I’m going to actually link to Sullivan for this one.  I know…I know…  In blindly supporting Bush out of nothing more noble then a puerile contempt for democrats, progressives and liberals, for so many years, Sullivan has helped keep the time when the following stops being a horrific reality for gay and lesbian Americans just out of reach.  Even those of us blessed enough to live in places where our relationships are given some sort of legal status, can have it all go nightmarishly wrong the moment we step over a state line.  And if the republicans Sullivan has passionately supported for so long have their way, eventually nearly every fucking state in the union will have an anti same-sex marriage amendment in its constitution.  Just never mind that for a moment.  You want to know why we fight…why the struggle for same sex marriage is so important…?

I remember a story told by a friend during the plague years. He was visiting a dying friend in hospital and a couple of beds down the ward from his friend, the curtains were drawn around a patient. From behind the curtains, he could hear a man softly singing a show-tune. "Well, at least that guy’s keeping his spirits up," my friend remarked. "Actually," his dying friend replied, "the man in that bed died this morning and was taken away by his family. That’s his boyfriend. The family won’t let him go to the funeral or ever see his spouse’s body again. They’ve kicked him out of their apartment. It wasn’t his name on the lease. So he’s just sitting there, singing their favorite song to an empty bed. It’s the last time he’ll get that close to his husband. The nurses didn’t have the heart to tell him to leave yet. He’s been there for hours."

There it is.  Why we fight.  What our enemies are fighting to preserve.  It’s not about marriage.  It’s not about the bible.  It’s about keeping that knife in our hearts, and their right to twist it whenever they feel like it.  Preferably, right when our hearts are most exposed and vulnerable.  Because if we don’t bleed, they’re not righteous.

Hey Stu…you still think I’m too angry?  Still think I need to be a tad more closeted in order to get along with people?  Of course you do.  Homosexuals don’t love, they just have sex.  Right?  It’s like I have this nasty disgusting little…personal issue…or mental disorder, as you’ve suggested a time or two…and as long as people like me just keep that disgusting part of ourselves under wraps we’ll all get along, won’t we?

So he’s just sitting there, singing their favorite song to an empty bed…

I’d tell you to go to Hell…but what the fuck, you’re already there.