When We Rise

I just got to the end of the new series "When We Rise," based on Cleve Jones' book.  Perhaps it's rather cliche for me to begin writing just after having seen a gripping film, but here I am again, affected by an idea, by a whole host of ideas, and contemplating my own existence as a result.  I'm overwhelmed and awestruck at the immensity of how my life has been affected.
the new series "When We Rise," based on Cleve Jones' book.

Just a year ago even, it was all so fresh for me, so new.  When DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) was overturned in the supreme court, I don't even think I realized at first.  It was just another day.  I was in Canada, I was about to leave for Europe, and I had pushed my own queer-ness to the back of my mind for the time.  I wasn't ready to go back and work through it, even though I'd known so many years before.  But what I didn't realize on June 26, 2015, was that just one year later I'd be planning my own queer wedding to the woman who is now my sweet wife.

I remember the day that British Columbia got gay marriage.  2003.  I was just 11 years old, and I was told that it was a very dark day.  I didn't understand what that meant at the time, but, apparently, equality was not considered a blessing.  In 2005, all of Canada had legalized same-sex marriage.  It took another 10 years for the United states to make that decision.

What I didn't see before today was the immensity of the struggle it took to get there.  The marriage of two women was made legal just in time for us to make use of it.  And we walked down the aisle and chose to love each other.

Still.

I may never have marched on Washington.  I may never have been stabbed in a back alley for my sexual orientation.  I may never have felt the stinging separation between lesbians and gays.  But that does not mean I have been immune from the sting of discrimination or hatred.  It does not mean that we have not spent long, dark nights crying, begging for things to be different.  I was thrown out of college for who I love.  I endured harassment, hate mail, and deceit because I am different.  I lost a lot.

But while choosing to be honest about who I love has been difficult, I have also gained so much.  Not only that, but I have grown immensely.  My faith has been challenged and endured.  Their attempt to thwart my future has only been met with my finding out even more of who I am (I'll be more than they dreamed I could be).

I'm not giving up.