George Bush, Gay Marriage, & Love

As Albert feels compelled to sing:

"I am What I am,
I am my own special creation,
So......
It's my world I that want to have a little pride in,
My world that is not a place I have to hide in!

Life's not worth a damn til you can say:
Hey. World I am what I am.

I don't want praise. I DON'T want pity.
I bang my own drum, some think it's noise, I think it's pretty.

What I am needs NO excuses!
There's only one life and there's no return and no deposit
Only one life and it time to open up you closets."*

* * * * * * * * * *

Yeah, I know you are wondering why a totally straight female living in the Bible Belt feels compelled to
write about this current controversy that seems concentrated in Massachusetts and California, and will most certainly leave out Dixieland. And I assure you that it will skip over the Bible Belt (well, for about a hundred years, or so). Why it is important for this dialog to open itself on a site like Literotica?

The South is convinced that gay marriage will avoid our little neck of the woods for the simple reason that we have so many churches down here that they have totally stamped out homosexuality. Trust me on this. I will offend some of my southern friends, and I apologize for that at the outset. But even my friends know the prevailing view around these parts is that your can save your sons from gay-ness by home-schooling them, getting them signed up for all-male activities like football and soccer, and making sure they go to church twice per week. Yeah, I can hear you snort. Just like God and an all-male bastion like the Catholic priesthood has stamped out homosexual behavior. Duh.

So why me?? I guess to introduce you to the idea that even down here there are liberal, educated thinkers who are not brain dead. Actually, there are lots of us down here, you just can't talk too loud unless you want your tires slashed or your windows egged. But also because I was born and raised in the Yankee northeast and spend twenty years in the San Francisco Bay Area and now reside right here "in the middle" of the controversy.

It concerns me that My President, and he represents me whether he wants to admit it or not, would put so much effort into opposing an American form of self expression and love. Here is this controversy swirling all around him and I wonder how much Bush has involved himself in the real nuts-and bolts of the issues. Love.

A simple inquiry as to how many same-sex wedding ceremonies President Bush has attended? Because no matter what he or his conservative associates think or want to pretend, he does represent each and every gay American; just like he represents every Jew and every Moslem in America (just like he made sure American knew after 9-11), He is My President, whether I voted for him or not, I want him to represent me a little more realistically than he is currently doing.

I have never heard him or Laura ever admit to knowing a single gay person, male or female. I know they must have come across someone, sometime. For sure, the President has not been willing to admit to such first-hand knowledge or friendship. To my knowledge, and the media would certainly have informed me on this issue, he has never entertained a single gay couple in My White House regarding their love and commitment. Although he had no such difficulty taking himself to Iraq for Thanksgiving.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or another," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. "And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

Gay or straight, marriage is about love and commitment. Two human beings who feel that their love and trust in each other is so strong they feel they can commit walking their life's path together. Might they falter, at some later date?? Sure. As straight marriages falter, too. Might their lifestyle be somewhat different than some of their neighbors?? Sure. As we all know on Literotica, there are almost as many forms of arousal as there are positions the human body can assume in coitus. Because love, like sex and sexual orientation, are in the human mind and NOT a statute on a law book or in a Biblical text.

I wonder in my mind, does President Bush believe that only he and Laura are the only couple capable of love and marriage? Does he really think he is so damned unique?

He is certainly surrounded by advisers suggesting to him that he, and they, are capable of defining morally and legally what is love and marriage and lifelong commitment.

Is it possible that Bush's advisers are right? That "civil union" is completely acceptable as substitute for real marriage? After all, these gay and lesbian couples could all choose to "live together" and who could say a legal word about it. If gays and lesbians would accept a civil union compromise then there would be no basis for a constitutional referendum. "A constitutional amendment to block gay marriages might not be necessary, although the proposal HAS the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee. " (Yeah, that is my Tennessee, darn and drat).

But, in the straight and ultra liberal world of Hollywood and mega-stars, where anything goes and stars can disregard almost any social and religious rules, Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt felt marriage was the ultimate public commitment. For sexy Sarah Jessica Parker and her versatile lover Matthew Broderick (does anyone remember him as Alan in Torch Song Trilogy?) only marriage would do. Not shacking up or living together. Not a "civil union" for these pairs. No. Only marriage would do.

Am I a romantic to believe it was not simply a financial or legal decision made all these couples in Hollywood or the Great White Way of Broadway? Although the "Massachusetts SJC affirmed its ruling that only marriage rights would provide equal protection under the state constitution to same-sex couples".
But what opinion should Literotica and it's vast and diverse membership have? How can George Bush and his cronies have any impact on our international readership? I would suggest to each of you that these same people who would sit in moral and legal judgement of my fellow Americans are sitting in moral judgement my fellow readers.

My fellow authors and my fellow readers, those who frequent Anal, BDSM, Gay Male, Group Sex, Fetish, Incest, Lesbian, Transsexual are all equally being judged and being found wanting and being found deviant. You are just hiding better.

"What I am needs NO excuses!
There's only one life and there's no returns and no deposits
Only one life and it's time to open up you closets."

How many of us are of this same opinion but are afraid to speak too loudly. Afraid to get your tires slashed, your houses egged, or just afraid to feel the censure of our friends and colleagues? I know very well there are parts of this world where the kind of openness I am suggesting is actually illegal. There are people who read our stories on Literotica and have no capacity to protest anything. Sexual variety is not permitted in religiously repressed countries and open dissension of one's leaders is punishable by torture and death (we hear about such things about Saddam's regime daily) and I have no doubt President George W. Bush would like to prevent his name ever being used on an erotic web site. But this is America, and the slippery slop to suppression starts at a very slight incline, perhaps hardly distinguishable at first, barely perceived.

What is Literotica but an exploration in openness and honesty. An opportunity to ply your broad and kinky sexual arousal through broad creative strokes in a totally safe, secure and usually anonymous venue. But these are all explorations into the many forms of love and often within commitment and marriage. How can we do otherwise than to find ways to voice our opinions of our fellows how have taken a much more open and courageous position than we have, ourselves.

I can tell you, on a personal level, as a single, straight, religiously practicing, G-d honoring woman of moderate looks and minimum education, I can sure tell you how very hard in it to find love and partnership in this world of ours. The thought that anyone, anywhere would disparage any two people of any age, any race, or any gender for exhibiting their love and commitment to each other is an insult to love itself. Love is love, it is not legislated nor "codified". And there is no finer place to state this than comfortably ensconced in Literotica. Love is love and it should prevail.

What do each of you get to privately shout when you call up this site? I am what I am!
"I am What I am,
I am my own special creation."

Thanks for reading this work. Please vote to indicate how much you enjoyed it (?), or how much it intrigued you and send feedback if you can spare the time. Your votes and feedback are the only way I will know how much you appreciated my effort and furnish the only means to improve my writing. Thank you.

*** 1988 Jerry Herman, La Cage aux folles