Meeting with Rep. Inslee on the Respect for Marriage Act – Act III: Not Just the Poor Man’s Lawyer
Looking back on it now, I can see the strategy Inslee was using when he began the real conversation with us. Start with a point of agreement. “What do you think of Referendum 71?” he asked.
“Well, we wish it had never happened in the first place, but we think it will pass,” I said. Everyone was still in the room, and I feel a little bad that with Inslee there, his legislative assistant, David, kind of faded into the background.
“My wife and I made a donation to the campaign,” he said. “And I sent out an e-mail in support of it–or at least I think I did–if not, I will.”
Read more
Meeting with Rep. Inslee on the Respect for Marriage Act – Act II: You Again, Barney Frank?
After the crowded waiting room, it was a relief to enter Inslee’s office, where there was plenty of seating. David Bahar, Inslee’s legislative assistant, was deaf and had an ASL translator, so for a little while it was just the four of us: David, the translator, Frances, and me. They assured me we had time to wait for Ami before beginning. I said she’d just be a few minutes, but the truth was I had no idea where–or if–she’d found parking or how long she’d be. I explained our mission and our journey, and talked about why we were running behind.
Lucky for me, Ami arrived a few minutes later, just about the time that the representative’s new communications person arrived, too. He said that he always tried to sit in with David, since he was so knowledgeable. I wondered if this was a way to make us feel like we were meeting with someone important, even if it wasn’t Inslee. We rearranged for the best translation vantage point, and got started.
Read moreMeeting with Rep. Inslee on the Respect for Marriage Act – Act I: Getting There
Oh, travel. You fickle harlot.
Somewhere along the way, we decided to drive to DC on the day of our meeting with our representative. I think it was partly a comfort concern–we were staying at my cousin Ceil’s apartment near Philly, and it’s got great things like a guest room and a shower. It was also partly a money concern–the park closest to DC is also very expensive–twice the price of some RV parks,–so we didn’t want to stay there two nights. It takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get from Philly to DC, and our meeting was at 1 p.m. We left at 7:09 a.m. I looked at the clock on the way out. I remember being proud of us for coming very close to making the 7 a.m. goal we’d set.
Read moreWe Voted! To Approve R-71, in Case You Were Wondering
At the post office mailing our ballots!
Today we mailed out ballots from Pennsylvania. This is us at the post office, excited to vote to approve R-71.
In Maine, we met a Californian at the No on 1 campaign office. He said he was more worried about Washington and R-71 than he was about Maine and Question [...]
A Paradigm Shift for Marriage
You know, I wasn’t always a big gay. For more than half of my life so far, I did not self-identify as queer.
In fact, the number of years I’ve had to think about marriage are about three to one the number of years I’ve had to think about queerness. I’ve encountered marriage as a child, as a teen, as a straight-by-default, as a closeted queer, as an out queer, as a married queer, as a Lutheran, as a Mormon, and as a person with enough Comparative Religion credits to need several paragraphs to express their spiritual perspective.
So I was very surprised to learn something about marriage while volunteering for the “No on 1″ campaign in Maine.
Read more
http://arewemarried.com/feed
