I Can Now Marry the Person I Love Anywhere in the USA
Forgive me if this is incoherent — I’m still overwhelmed by a feeling with which I’m not exactly accustomed: joy. When I came out five years ago, at age 25, it wasn’t the result of a sudden epiphany or an ill-tempered attempt to exact revenge on my family. No. I knew I was queer about the moment I hit puberty; it took me so long, because for all those years, I had been told that LGBT individuals are evil and going straight to a fiery and eternal hell. In my personal and spiritual journey (cf. earlier posts), I shed that particular fear and came finally to embrace the fact (about which I was once embarrassed, then neutral and finally proud) that I am a gay man. Today the United States Supreme Court affirmed my absolute equality with any person in the U.S. I don’t need to be ashamed ever again.
I never thought I’d see this day. Now that it’s here, all I can feel is joy.