Massachusetts, writing and other stuff
May. 17th, 2004 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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yragg noted this morning, it was great to wake up and find that Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses this morning. I have my TV set to wake me up with BBC Breakfast every morning so this was practically the first thing I heard :-) Even better came this evening when there was an item on the news showing the exchange of vows between a lesbian couple. It was lovely and I was grinning like a loon as I watched.
It's a wonderful thing for a lot of reasons. Hopefully the Shrub won't be able to get his constitutional amendment through now that the Supreme Court has ruled in Massachusetts' favour. It's a civil liberties victory and a personal victory for the couple I saw who were able to take vows in front of their friends, family and community that have legal standing. The civil union bill in the UK is a big step forward and I support it, but I'd much rather have full marriage. I'm glad that I'll be emigrating to Canada one day where I can do what that couple did today. Marriage is about more than a piece of paper. It's about declaring that you love one person, will stay faithful to that person and want to build a life together. It's about making a promise in front of everyone you care about and the community that you live in that this person is the one you will spend your life with.
I could get that from a commitment ceremony with no legal contracts, but it wouldn't be the same. Marriage acknowledges that my relationship is as valid as anyone else's. Civil unions still discriminate - they say to me that my relationship should have some legal protections, but it can't be regarded on the same level as a heterosexual relationship.
Maybe part of it is that I grew up expecting to one day meet someone, get married and spend my life with that person. The gender of my partner may have changed, but I don't see why my expectations should change. The only way people will see gay relationships as equal with straight ones is to treat them in the same way. That means equal legal protections, equal duties and equal rights. We can educate our children to have better a understanding and more open minds, but they see the exact opposite all around them.
This is a soap-box thing for me. I'll support the civil union bill in my country because it's the best I'm likely to get for a long time here. Some recognition and legal protection is better than nothing at all. It feels like I'm settling for second best and that's because I am. I shouldn't have to, but I'll take what I can get. For now. One day I'm going to meet a woman that I love more than I can imagine and I'll want to stand up and shout it from the roof-tops. So I'll ask her, or she'll ask me, and we'll stand up in front of our friends and family to make promises that are spiritually and legally binding. Like the couple I watched this evening, it will be a day filled with joy because it's such an important and beautiful thing. I hope that the Massachusetts decision is only the start of things for gay couples in America.
Things I intended to do today:
1. Write a paper on streaming video
2. Write an initial set of requirements for my software research project.
3. Defragment and clean the disk of my laptop in the vain hope that it will start working properly.
Things I actually did today:
1. Wrote a paper on streaming video.
2. Wrote the initial requirements for my research project.
3. Defragmented and cleaned the disk of my laptop, although it still doesn't work properly. Guh.
So I actually did what I set out to do. Yay me!
In the process of going through my laptop, I found an original short story I wrote a couple of years ago. I was rather shocked because it didn't suck. It's a fantasy thing, not set in the Serpent in the Shadows universe, and stands on its own reasonably well. It's given me an idea for a much longer prequel for it, with this short story acting as a prologue for a longer story afterward. Two novel ideas in one afternoon. I'm going to work out how to free my story from the damned laptop and make sure that I keep it. I can't do anything with it at the moment (too many projects, not enough time) but I really like the ideas I'm getting.
Oddly, the ideas are completely different from the ideas I was working on when I wrote it. Maybe that's why it didn't get developed further last year :-)
I am working on a sequel to Serpent in the Shadows (it's in the planning stages, although I keep itching to write it) and I have an idea for a completely original novel set in that universe. Before I get sucked into any more novels, though, I want to get Rewind and A Voice in the Darkness finished. I *so* wish I could afford to just devote all my time to writing these ideas. Darned stupid stories chasing around my brain :-)
On a completely random note, has anyone ever thought that Queen's Killer Queen would make a fantastic Sam video? I love music videos that manage to coordinate the lyrics with the clips used and I can already think of some fun clips for it. But I don't know how to make music vids and I probably don't have the server capacity :-( But I love that song, for some unknown (and possibly demented) reason.
yragg noted this morning, it was great to wake up and find that Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses this morning. I have my TV set to wake me up with BBC Breakfast every morning so this was practically the first thing I heard :-) Even better came this evening when there was an item on the news showing the exchange of vows between a lesbian couple. It was lovely and I was grinning like a loon as I watched.It's a wonderful thing for a lot of reasons. Hopefully the Shrub won't be able to get his constitutional amendment through now that the Supreme Court has ruled in Massachusetts' favour. It's a civil liberties victory and a personal victory for the couple I saw who were able to take vows in front of their friends, family and community that have legal standing. The civil union bill in the UK is a big step forward and I support it, but I'd much rather have full marriage. I'm glad that I'll be emigrating to Canada one day where I can do what that couple did today. Marriage is about more than a piece of paper. It's about declaring that you love one person, will stay faithful to that person and want to build a life together. It's about making a promise in front of everyone you care about and the community that you live in that this person is the one you will spend your life with.
I could get that from a commitment ceremony with no legal contracts, but it wouldn't be the same. Marriage acknowledges that my relationship is as valid as anyone else's. Civil unions still discriminate - they say to me that my relationship should have some legal protections, but it can't be regarded on the same level as a heterosexual relationship.
Maybe part of it is that I grew up expecting to one day meet someone, get married and spend my life with that person. The gender of my partner may have changed, but I don't see why my expectations should change. The only way people will see gay relationships as equal with straight ones is to treat them in the same way. That means equal legal protections, equal duties and equal rights. We can educate our children to have better a understanding and more open minds, but they see the exact opposite all around them.
This is a soap-box thing for me. I'll support the civil union bill in my country because it's the best I'm likely to get for a long time here. Some recognition and legal protection is better than nothing at all. It feels like I'm settling for second best and that's because I am. I shouldn't have to, but I'll take what I can get. For now. One day I'm going to meet a woman that I love more than I can imagine and I'll want to stand up and shout it from the roof-tops. So I'll ask her, or she'll ask me, and we'll stand up in front of our friends and family to make promises that are spiritually and legally binding. Like the couple I watched this evening, it will be a day filled with joy because it's such an important and beautiful thing. I hope that the Massachusetts decision is only the start of things for gay couples in America.
Things I intended to do today:
1. Write a paper on streaming video
2. Write an initial set of requirements for my software research project.
3. Defragment and clean the disk of my laptop in the vain hope that it will start working properly.
Things I actually did today:
1. Wrote a paper on streaming video.
2. Wrote the initial requirements for my research project.
3. Defragmented and cleaned the disk of my laptop, although it still doesn't work properly. Guh.
So I actually did what I set out to do. Yay me!
In the process of going through my laptop, I found an original short story I wrote a couple of years ago. I was rather shocked because it didn't suck. It's a fantasy thing, not set in the Serpent in the Shadows universe, and stands on its own reasonably well. It's given me an idea for a much longer prequel for it, with this short story acting as a prologue for a longer story afterward. Two novel ideas in one afternoon. I'm going to work out how to free my story from the damned laptop and make sure that I keep it. I can't do anything with it at the moment (too many projects, not enough time) but I really like the ideas I'm getting.
Oddly, the ideas are completely different from the ideas I was working on when I wrote it. Maybe that's why it didn't get developed further last year :-)
I am working on a sequel to Serpent in the Shadows (it's in the planning stages, although I keep itching to write it) and I have an idea for a completely original novel set in that universe. Before I get sucked into any more novels, though, I want to get Rewind and A Voice in the Darkness finished. I *so* wish I could afford to just devote all my time to writing these ideas. Darned stupid stories chasing around my brain :-)
On a completely random note, has anyone ever thought that Queen's Killer Queen would make a fantastic Sam video? I love music videos that manage to coordinate the lyrics with the clips used and I can already think of some fun clips for it. But I don't know how to make music vids and I probably don't have the server capacity :-( But I love that song, for some unknown (and possibly demented) reason.
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Date: 2004-05-20 01:01 am (UTC)Yeah, like Elton. :-( Although he did grow some balls, considering that very angsty and depressing song, "All the Girls Love Alice." But I think that song squeaked in under the radar because it was about a lesbian. It that double standard hypocrisy, isn't it? The straight boys' "let's have two women together, but they're not gay, just hot" bullshit.
I just pretend that Melissa Etheridge made typos if she uses 'he' in some of her songs :-)
Melissa wouldn't, no. :-) Happily. :-)))
Btw, one of my all time favorite songs is "Yes, I Am." "I'm the Only One" is a close second. :-) I hear "Yes, I Am" and I can't help but put it in context to my Trinity boys. Just predictable, ain't I? ;-)