Tomorrow may very well be one of the most emotionally charged days for those on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate. It has been three months since The Supreme Court first heard oral arguments on the cases of Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor.
Given the many possible ways in which a decision may be handed on both cases, it is hard to predict how the justices will decide. Will I wake up tomorrow in a nation that has finally evolved and learned that love is love no matter whom we choose to spend forever with? Will it be a morning where we learn that we are separate but equal and given this "skim milk marriage" as Justice Ginsberg stated in the oral arguments of United States v. Windsor? Or will I wake up to learn that our United States is not so united?
We hear over and over again from those opposed to our "gay marriages" that we will destroy all that is right and the sanctity that marriage brings between a man and a woman. That marriages "like your kind want" will lead to unions between dogs and humans, adults and children, or even brother and sister. I always have to stop and ask myself, "how?". How does my committed and loving relationship affect you? How does my marriage to my husband lead to the demise of our society?
I don't want special treatment. I don't want a separate category created for myself and my husband. I simply want what every heterosexual couple has, the benefits and protections granted to them through marriage. I want to not have to worry about the legal ramifications and struggle we would have to go through if God forbid something happened to either of us. I want to look at our children we plan on having one day and not have to choose who will be the one that has to take them to the doctor's because we cannot both legally be their parents because our state does not recognize our marriage.
As my grandmother was on her deathbed, I remember her telling Coty that she was so lucky to have met him and have him become part of our family. That she loved him with all of her heart and to never listen to what others had to say because she could see the love in both of our eyes and to make sure he took care of me. My grandmother, a woman who was born during a time period when women were not allowed to vote and lived through the civil rights movement, could see the love we shared between us. A woman who spent her entire life having faith and even becoming a Sunday School teacher, could see that love was not based on the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, or even the gender you chose to identify as, but by your heart's way of connecting with another. I always think to myself "I wish more people could be the way she was. Maybe there wouldn't be so much anger and prejudice in this world".
What kind of America do you want to wake up to?