Obligatory Gay Post

Lynne Cheney was on Jon Stewart last night.  Did you see?  He did the soft-touch thing of course.  There would be no excuse for that if he did it to Dick, but with her—I guess—it’s all right.  Still, though he was careful and delicate, he did manage to say what we all are thinking. 

 

Why is it OK for the Republicans to do such mean things to your child?

 

Her (non-) answers conveyed that she believes that, in fact, she and Dick have stuck up for their child, have protected their child, Dick by saying “freedom means freedom for everyone,” and she herself by stating publicly that she is against the FMA.  She dismissed any suggestion that they could actually stand up and do something instead of just saying things.  And I thought, isn’t she a MOTHER? How can she let that stuff go?

 

I have never properly thanked my own mother for her activism.  She deserves my thanks and more, she puts me to shame.  Years ago she was fighting the fight for Civil Unions.  She even put a bumper sticker on her car, which is so out of her normal way I was good and truly shocked.  In the years since she has stepped up to wage the battle for full marriage rights.  At any street fair or festival, she’s manning the Freedom to Marry booth, chatting up strangers, extracting signatures for the petitions.  She’s unafraid to really engage someone who says “Are you gay?  Then why do you care?” She writes letters to the editor when needed—clear, and concise letters that lay it out in simple terms.  Marriage is good.  Everyone should have the right.  She goes to the Statehouse to lobby.  When she’s in DC on business (yes! She has an entire other career!) she stops in to the rep and the senators to say hello and to remind them of this, her important cause.  You can call it preaching to the choir but it still matters.  

 

You may think that there is no convincing the antis that they are wrong.  But she has done it.  She has collected signatures from people who said, Oh, I just couldn’t! It’s too far!  She’ll say, What part is too far?  She talks them through it.  They change their minds because of what she says.

 

This is amazing to me.  I have a touch of the pessimist in me (O.D. is scoffing, a TOUCH?) and would never, ever have believed that people could be convinced that they were wrong on this issue.  My mother proves me wrong over and over.  Vermont is going to follow Massachusetts, I think.

 

I am incredibly grateful to have my mother’s support.  It’s more than support; she’s leading the way.  To me it has always seemed beyond all requirement, the lengths she goes to for this cause.  But according to her, it is simply mothering.  It is protective, it is caring, it is loving. Now that I am slowly becoming used to the role of mother myself, and wondering every day what it means to be a good mother and whether I can be one, I understand better.  My mother fights this fight because it is what mothers do for their children: really and truly fight for them.  If I can stand for my kid the way my mother does for me, I will be satisfied with the job I’ve done.