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By Dave Demerjian
Cincinnati CityBeat, November 10, 2004
I woke up on November 3rd and realized that you and I don't even live in the same country anymore. You live in the United States of America, the country that just re-elected George W. Bush as president. I live in what appears to be a completely different place: Massachusetts, home of the oft-mentioned Massachusetts Liberal. The differences between us are startling.
Exit polls claim that the majority of Americans stepped into the voting booth most concerned about "moral issues" like abortion and stem cell research. Not the case in Massachusetts, where lots of crazy liberals like me were more worried about silly stuff like the economy and the war in Iraq. A few of us who are really, really out there even expressed concern about issues like the environment.
Oh, yeah, we've got that pesky gay marriage thing, too. Let's be honest: Gay marriage hasn't won me and my uber-liberal crew too many friends in your parts. That's why Ohio and 10 other states passed anti-gay marriage measures this past week. Some even argue that by legalizing gay marriage last year, the Massachusetts State Supreme Court handed the election to George W., giving him an issue that he could grab onto and that truly illustrated just how far to the left those crazy Massachusetts liberals had swung. I'm afraid my man John Kerry suffered from a case of guilt by association.
Lots of Catholic priests here warned us that the fabric of society would fray and weaken after the gay marriages started, but so far we've been holding up OK. One of my friends went to six gay weddings this summer – we've been busy up here! – and she hasn't turned into a lesbian yet. I went to three heterosexual weddings this year and have two more coming up, so it would appear that the gays haven't totally cornered the wedding market in Massachusetts.
A coworker of mine married her partner of 10 years this past spring. They're raising two beautiful children in a suburb not unlike those where you Cincinnatians raise your families. They take their kids to soccer practice, attend parent-teacher conferences, help with homework.
As for me, I've lived with my boyfriend Ethan for three years and have found in him a love more pure and real than any I've experienced in my life. How could I feel anything but pride and good fortune to live in a state that will allow me to affirm and recognize this love legally?
One of the most closely watched local races in Massachusetts last week was for the Suffolk and Norfolk county state senate seat. Longtime incumbent Marian Walsh had shocked her conservative Catholic constituents by speaking out in favor of gay marriage rights in 2003. The Catholic Church vowed to bring her down, and anti-marriage groups from across the country began lining up to take part in her defeat. When the polls closed, Walsh won a decisive victory.
A year after its legalization, it seems that straight people realize same-sex marriage isn't hurting them at all. Their own marriages are still legitimate and meaningful in the eyes of their God, their government and their community. The institution of marriage itself has in no way weakened. Walsh's victory came in a Catholic district strongly concerned by moral issues. It proves that tolerance trumps dogma and that equal rights and Christian values can and should coexist.
I had the opportunity to spend time in Cincinnati this past year for business – no passport required yet – and I was struck by the friendliness and warmth of your city's residents. I believe that people in Ohio want the same things as those of us in Massachusetts: the chance to love and be loved, to raise a family in a caring home, to be respected and accepted for who we are.
Cincinnati and Boston are just over 550 miles away from each other, less than two hours by airplane, different parts of the same great country. But it frightens me to admit that today you feel like you're a million miles away.
