"We are the face of gay marriage. We are a family."

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Judiciary Committee hearing on same-sex marriage at the State House. I arrived at 2PM and promptly donned an “I DO: support Mass. equality” sticker before I wedged myself into a small and stuffy courtroom. For three hours I stood stock still while listening to testimony on three proposed bills; one which would define marriage as between one man and one woman (DOMA), one which would nullify gay marriages that have occurred since May 2005, and one that would have Margaret Marshall (who decided the Goodridge case) removed from the bench.

In front of the room sat the panel, which consisted of senators, representatives, and other legislators. The panel heard a variety of witnesses, who could sign up to speak for three minutes each. I’ve never seen such an array of people in my life, and I’ve never felt such concentrated hatred in my life. The first man I had the pleasure of hearing started off with how Mass. let “4 black folks run rampant on the Constitution.” Needless to say, my blood began to boil almost immediately. During my three-hour stay, I heard everything from how legalized gay marriage made a comedienne’s job harder to how we had to act quickly to stop “renegade” judges from making Mass. a “lawless” state to a song-and-dance from a “former homosexual.” Luckily, I also got to hear testimony from the other side. A group of lesbian mothers brought their children into the court and told their stories, standing behind their motto of “We are the face of gay marriage. We are a family.” The waterworks started soon after, when a clean-cut man in a business suit got on one knee in front of the panel and re-enacted proposing to his now-husband. He turned to Senator Creedon, the chairman, and with tears choking his voice said, “This was the first time I had ever legally been able to do this. This is my life; don’t take it away from me.”

Clearly, the emotional level was quite high. But, I also learned a lot from being at the hearing. For one, did anyone know that there are 10,000 children in MA alone being raised by gay and lesbian parents? And has anyone considered the effect on these children if their recently-married gay parents lose their marriage license? I was up in arms for most of the meeting, but one thing that the pro-amendment side said sliced through me like ice and sobered me up – Margaret Marshall engaged in judicial activism. She spoke at a MGLBA dinner prior to deciding this case, and although we don’t remove our judges from the bench because we don’t like their decisions, some are claiming that Marshall was not an impartial judge. They put aside their hate for a minute to attack the legality of the trial, and I was afraid. I don’t think a lot of people understood this, but I did, and I felt sick to my stomach. I don’t think that her conduct justifies removal from the bench, but then again who am I?

The bottom line is, this fight is not over. It may never be over. When Goodridge was decided, we rejoiced and moved on with our lives. We must not forget that we need to protect our recently-acquired equality. We are just normal people looking for some permanence and security in our normal lives. Like in the past, Massachusetts is ahead of the rest of the nation in ending discrimination and we need to do everything we can to help make sure these bills are not passed. As one man shouted in his testimony, we need to “Defend, not Amend, the Constitution!” We need to remind those who don’t agree that our founding fathers meant what they said – they created the Constitution to protect the people, and they meant that “all men are created equal,” and this includes the homosexual population. We cannot stop this fight.