Is Equality a Fairy Tale?

Jack and I celebrated a wedding anniversary this past Sunday. To honor our 12 glorious years together, I spent part of last night making phone calls to my local legislators encouraging them to vote in favor of marriage equality in Illinois.

Thankfully 12 years ago, when we got married, the state of Illinois didn't question our commitment to one another. They were not interested in our future plans, including whether or not we planned on having, or adopting children. Nowhere on the application did they ask about our birth order, only the priest that married us hesitated when he found that we were both first born, a snag that does raise it's ugly head from time to time. And because I am a girl and Jack is a boy we were allowed to marry in the state we called home. It was, and still is, a legal union.

Nine states have now legalized same sex marriage, Illinois is poised to be the tenth.

Curious 8 year old Mary listened intently as I explained why voicing your opinion matters, and why this particular subject is of interest to me.

"Me too Mom, I'm going to make a list for you, of things to say". She came up with only one thing, "some things are fair and some things are not fair and this is not fair".

"You know I think this is a little like a fairy tale, when the dumb old King gets to decide who is to marry, and they don't even get to say what they think. Isn't this that way, when someone else gets to say if you can marry? Shouldn't you just get to marry who makes you happy?".

Tonight Mary will be making the calls.