Recent comments by our President that he believes in same-sex marriage as a Constitutional right have inspired and energized the LGBT community, of which I am an elderly member.
My memories were stirred and revived as I recollected my youth of being harassed, threatened bodily harm with a knife held to my throat and my love for a gentleman I spent 38 years with trivialized and the butt of a bad joke.
Each day I survived as a gay man was a triumph; each night that I lived my life as an American citizen was a victory over bigotry and intolerance. These unnoticed and unremarkable victories are something every gay man and lesbian in America has undergone. They are all survivors like me but there are no rewards or accolades for endurance.
And yet we contributed plays, poetry and music to the society that spurned us. There are lawyers now, senators and assemblymen, and still the tale is not done. For our voices will become louder, not in anger but in pride that we existed alongside our heterosexual brothers and sisters and found comfort and love in each other and our straight friends and allies, and were still able to contribute to the society that denigrates us at every turn and kept us from that most basic right of all, the consummation of our love through marriage.
Like our brothers and sisters throughout history who have persevered in every society, who though often hidden, still loved and mourned but never relinquished the hope, the belief that “somewhere over the rainbow” they would be recognized as true American citizens.
And we came one step closer with a statement by an American President welcoming us into the family of man, one step closer to a hope fulfilled, one step closer to a dream realized.
Thank you Mr. President and thank you Lake County for your support and belief in the Lake County Stonewall Democratic Club.
Harold Riley
Clearlake
