Patricia Cornwell Speaks Out for Gay Marriage

Former Virginia resident - she used to live in Richmond - and best selling author, Patricia Cornwall (I've read a number of here earlier books) has spoken out in support of gay marriage in a recent interview. I believe that it is important that well known and prominent LGBT Americans speak out as she has done and make it increasingly difficult for our Christianist/Mormon enemies to depict us with negative stereotypes. The more of us who are out and open about who we are, the sooner the Christianist will be ultimately defeated in the public arena. Here are some highlights from Reuters:

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Crime writer Patricia Cornwell is a master storyteller but had shied away from telling her own tale, until this year when uproar about same-sex marriages in the United States prompted her to go public. Cornwell, 52, has been married for two years to Staci Ann Gruber, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School whom she met while researching neuroscience for one of her thrillers about forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta.

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Cornwell, who has just released her 16th Scarpetta book called "Scarpetta," said the heated debate on same-sex marriages in the United States made it time for her to talk about her own. "At my age, I have been around a while now and I am less uncomfortable with those sorts of revelations than I used to be," Cornwell told Reuters in a telephone interview. "Maybe it is a function of getting older but I think it is important to stand up and be counted. When you're not in a relationship your sexual orientation is more theoretical but it becomes more real when you are with somebody and you are not going to hide that."

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"If people like me don't take a stand then it will only get worse. We just want to live and let live and be treated in the same way straight people are treated," said Cornwell, who was previously married to an English professor, Charles Cornwell. "It is no longer theoretical when you have people voting against what you believe is your right, making it illegal, when one of the best things about me is the person I am with. This applies to me and it is frightening.

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Cornwell said she is not the active campaigner type but her own experience has fed into her writing and she believes speaking out can help clear up some misunderstandings.