The mindful life with Waylon H. Lewis

An American Bigot

By Waylon H. Lewis, 8-01-06

Man sees woman, man awkwardly approaches woman, woman gives number, man calls nervously, man/woman go for walk, man/woman go for drink, man/woman go dutch (these days) on dindin, man/woman go on two more dates (that’s the law) and spend a warm, raw, love-filled night together. Man/woman fall in love, get married, have children.

And that’s how the human races perpetuates this tragicomedy known as this precious human birth.

What’s the root of all this? It’s that tender love. And you don’t have to be a man/woman to share it. You can be a mom/baby, a dad/grandma, a boy/dog, a poet/moon. Love makes the world go around—and, like taste, you can’t legislate it.

But you can’t blame our government—by, of, and for (most of) the people, for trying to legislate love. I wish they’d legislate taste, as they used to, and produce lovely government buildings that evoke Rome instead of cheapest-common denominator concrete boxes. But that’s another story.

Go to Washington. Go down South, or across the street. Read the paper. Do anything other than stick your head in the sand, and you’ll notice that we’re trying to figure out if queer folks should have the right to be folks. To love, to marry, to be queer together, to be queer in public view. And that’s what this about: not should they be allowed to marry, but should they allowed to ‘be.’ According to Bible Bigots, they should not. According to good Christians who read the spirit of Jesus’ law, of course they should.

I’m straight as an arrow. The whole dance around in shirts three sizes too tight thing doesn’t do it for me. But I’ll be first in line at any gay rights event, and I’ll walk the line all the way down the line. Why? Because I’m proud to be an American. An American isn’t merely someone who happens to live in America. An American is someone who gets that America is an idea unique in its realization: that, as Jefferson & Co put it, all men are created equal. At the time, ‘Men’ (uppercase) referred to Humankind.

But still it took those men (lowercase) sometime to figure that poor folks, not just gentry, oughta be allowed to vote. And it took the next generations some time to admit that those crazy Suffragettes were right: women were sentient, intelligent, and—yes—human—and oughta be allowed to vote. And it took those men and women some time to admit that, yes, blacks oughta be allowed to vote and drink out of any water fountain they please and sit anywhere on the bus they please...

So when are we gonna get the great lessons of the last century: that all Humankind is equal? That love is love by any other gender persuasion?

I don’t say this as a liberal. I don’t say this as a young person. I say this as an American. America is about liberty, the kind of liberty that can’t be forced. America is about human rights, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether gays should be allowed to marry is up to their church. That’s a matter of religious bigotry, or lack thereof. But they should be able to ‘legally’ marry—to visit their loved one in the hospital, to pass on their wealth to their better half, etc. And so civil unions are vital—not to gays, but to all Americans. I don’t want to live in an America that says some people are less people than others. We figured the math on that one was wrong shortly after the War Between the States, remember?

I’m straight. And I know that fact doesn’t make me more a man than my gay brothers and sisters. It just makes me different—and vice, versa. God Bless the Greatest Melting Pot that ever was.

I’ll see you in my hometown’s next City Council campaign, if not in a blog well before—suggestions for spouting off are most welcome.

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