Mass Rocks!

Since same-sex marriage has become legalized in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention brings anxiety and stress. First there are people that descend on Boston, the conservatives that rant about how same-sex marriage is a sign of the devil or worse. Then there are the news stories about where the amendments that ban same-sex marriage and where things stand.

I'm a single, gay man. I don't even have a boyfriend, never mind someone that I want to share my life with. So for the most part, the marriage equality issue affects me more theoretically than practically at the moment.

What does hit me is the arguments and the bile that some of those that oppose same-sex marriage use to make their case. It's just so damned depressing to hear all of that nastiness again and again. It brings up all of the guilt, alienation that I thought had been put to rest in my life decades ago. I can only imagine what they're doing to some closeted kid that's struggling to come out.

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon with a window open to Bay Window's Blogging the Con Con coverage. I rushed home to find out how the vote went down.

I had been reading articles about how people weren't sure how it was going to go. And I'd read articles a few months ago about whether it made political sense to let the vote go to the public, so that Massachusetts would become a money sink in the culture wars which -- supposedly -- would have helped the Democratic party in the 2008 presidential election. Neither of which helped my anxiety level. No one wants to think that their rights could be thrown under the bus to help the greater good.

When I got home and found out how the vote went down, I couldn't believe how good it felt. I like to think I'm an optimist, but I had doubted and had given in to fear. To find out that the Commonwealth had done the right thing, when I was afraid that they wouldn't was a gift without price.

Thank you, Mass. legislators.

Update: Found out that there's a bit in the Mass. constitution that stops people from offering a constitutional amendment without a cooling off period. This would be able to go before the voters before the 2012 election. At best.