Still Married, But …

“It’s like getting only half-stabbed to death.”

I’m a writer who makes most of his living as a film critic. So does my husband.

 

We’re used to writing about other people’s stories for a living. But today our own story, and the story of about 18,000 other legally married gay couples in California, is all over the news. That’s because the narrow majority of California voters got their way and, according to the courts, played by all the proper rules when they overturned our right to be married in last November’s election.

 

Legal types will be quick to tell you that the judges themselves weren’t ruling against gay marriage but in favor of the rights of the majority to run roughshod over gay marriage.

And I can still call him my husband, even now that the same court that decided it was unconstitutional for us to be disallowed marriage rights has decided that it’s okay for other people to take those rights away. For some strange reason, he and I are now grandfathered into the law.

 

Oh, yes, it feels so good to have a legal bond now that no other gay or lesbian taxpayers in this state will be allowed to have one. It’s like getting only half-stabbed to death.

What’s next? Well, there will be angry protests to start.

 

I’ll probably not take part in those. I’m the type of hothead who’d wind up helping to overturn a cop car or throwing a brick through a window, so it’s best if I channel my rage through words instead. And then it’ll go back on a ballot in the next election.

 

And then what? We just keep making it legal and then illegal and then back to legal again? An endless schoolyard game of civil rights keep-away? A conservative religious Taliban-like scenario where they get to decide how you live your life? (Oh, and hey, Pastor Guy from that church in San Diego I just saw smirking on CNN? Glad you’re so pleased. You’re a jerk. Go to hell.)

Anyway, I don’t really know what the future holds here. All I know today is that I was personally slapped in the face by my state.

 

Again. And I would very much like to hit back. Hard.

 

Okay, that’s all I have to say. Back to reviewing movies. I’m really holding my breath for "Bride Wars 2."

 

 

Dave White is the film critic for Movies.com and a writer for MSN. He and Alonso Duralde have been married since June 27, 2008.

Comments