It has been a hectic week. As you will note, I was a bit cranky yesterday vis-a-vis the "Christian" Right types. I am thrilled at the result in Massachusetts yesterday and feel confident that any future attempts to amend that state's constitution will be unsuccessful, particularly with four more years of gay marriages taking place. It will be much harder for our adversaries to prevail - the more marriages that would be rescinded or thrown into limbo, the more reluctant legislators will be to overturn the current law. Moreover, gay marriage will become an even more commonplace thing. It is a bitter sweet victory for me living in Virginia, however, where gays are subject to so much discriminatory legislation.
I plan on putting efforts into assisting in lobbying Virginia's U. S. Senators to vote for both the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act and ENDA as well. Both federal acts are desperately needed in a state like Virginia where gays have no state law protections and it is an "employment at will" state. Almost every week I get calls from LGBT individuals who have been fired for being gay and have to sadly tell them that they have basically no recourse unless they had a signed employment contract for a stated term.
Tonight is my daughter's graduation ceremony. Raymond and I will be attending, but sitting a safe distance from the estranged wife. I hope my other two children will at least say "hello" if they see us. Of course, I will also encounter many former "friends" at the event. It will be interesting to see how many of them even acknowledge me. All the years I spent on civic league matters and serving on the board of the neighborhood pool association will probably count for nothing in that rabid GOP area of Virginia Beach.
On a different note, I now have a trial date for the divorce since I doubt the estranged wife will settle: July 31, 2007. I truly will not how to act once I have that cloud no longer hanging over me. I suspect that she will find that she will get less awarded to her by the Court than if she'd been reasonable and achieved a settlement. I almost feel sorry for her in that she has allowed her hatred toward me to dominate her life, particularly over the last year. I truly never wished her ill and foolishly had hoped we could be friends. So much for that delusion. As I see it, both she and I are victims of our homophobic society and religious fanatics who convince young gays that they can "pray the gay away." She on the otherhand sees herself as a victim of my actions alone. It's unfortunate that straights will never really understand what the closet does to one and that at some point it may just no longer be possible to continue to live such a life.
No comments:
Post a Comment