OK, you know what’s weird?
Here’s what’s weird. Follow with me, won’t you, this sequence of events.
- Around February, 2004, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom decides to allow local gay couples to marry.
- Inspired in part by this, I write a play about a lesbian couple, Annabel and Keitha.
- One day not long after that, I discover a photograph of Newsom standing between two lesbian brides.
- I send it to a few of my friends and family who have read the play, telling them it reminds me very much of my characters.
- The Democrats lost the election, and a rapidly gathering CW is that gay marriage was the wedge issue that put Bush over the top.
- I write a short scene on this blog showing my characters reaction.
- I get an email from my friend Peter saying (in part) “Indeed, the quest for gay rights shouldn’t stop, but perhaps a change in tactics is in order. More simple rights like hospital visitation first, then “marriage”.
- Salon.com publishes an opinion piece asking whether Newsom cost the Democrats the election.
- It’s a good piece, too–I’d say I agree with about 98% of it. Maybe more.
“Putting the blame on gays and lesbians goes against our own core values. We can’t sell our souls to take back the White House…until Newsom went on his marrying spree, I thought Democrats needed to move very slowly on gay marriage. Then I had friends and neighbors who got married – and a few whose weddings got cancelled when the California Supreme Court stopped the ceremonies in March – and my worldview permanently shifted. Now I don’t know how the party can turn its back on gay people who want to marry…I believe we’ll survive four more Bush years and recover the White House. But we won’t do it by selling out gay people.”
Upon reading this, Keitha and Annabel both immidiately wanted to find that writer and give her a great big kiss on each cheek.
- At the top of the piece? The very same picture of Newsom, standing between “my girls.” (Annabel’s on the left–your left as you’re facing the screen–and Keitha’s on the right).
