We SHALL Overcome.

I have seen the photos of the celebrations, and they remind me of the video I saw of the people having cake and punch in celebration when they passed Texas Proposition 2.

Shame on all of you. Shame. Shame on you if you are a supporter of Proposition 8, whether you are in the pictures or not, whether you live in California or not. Nothing but Shame.

You go right on ahead and claim your moral superiority. You go right on ahead and say that your religion is right. But just you remember that not so long ago, your religion and your morals were used to say that black people could not marry white people, that black people could be enslaved by white people, that women could not vote, and that women were property of their fathers or husbands.

You remember that. You remember that because if you support the idea that gays are second-class citizens -- and you do support that idea if you support Proposition 8 and the others around the country -- then you are a bigot, just as sure as you would be if you would deny Michelle Obama the right to vote or Kay Bailey Hutchison the right to serve in the Senate.

This is not the end of this fight; it is merely the beginning. We are not going to go away, and we are not going to sit quietly and defer to your ever so DEEPLY HELD BELIEFS.

I am getting MARRIED to my GIRLFRIEND on 2 May. I am going to vow to her that I will love, honour, cherish, and protect her, that I will be faithful to her forever. And no law of yours is going to change the fact that we will be MARRIED.

So you go on and have your cake and punch; dance and shout with glee that civil rights have been taken away from a group of people who you think are less than you, who you view as disgusting. You go on.

Because I am going to spend the rest of my life with a most extraordinary woman with whom I am in love more deeply than I ever could have imagined and who loves me with the same ferocity, and your hate and anger will not change that.

And in a few years' time, we will be equal, not in your eyes, but in the eyes of the United States which was built on the principle that ALL are created equal.

We Shall Overcome.

Oh.

I'm not entirely sure why it annoys me so much when articles and people use the phrase "lesbian relationship" when describing the lives of people like Elizabeth Bishop or Virginia Woolf. I think it's an unnecessary modifier. If Virginia Woolf ran off with Vita Sackville-West, who is a woman, their relationship was obviously gay. Why is this difficult?

(Insert ten minutes' rumination and some tea here.)

Wait, I know why it's annoying. It's because the use of the modifier marks it as different. "Lesbian" is the modifier one would use when desiring to mark the otherness of a relationship, particularly those who think that we oughtn't be getting married.

I cannot describe how deeply it hurts to realise that a friendship I had was not true. I was patiently waiting for someone to think over her prejudice and realise that my marriage will in fact be blessed.

I did not realise that she was not thinking about it, and did not want to.