A week ago Saturday I went with Rebecca, Charles, Amanda, and Melissa to the March for Marriage Equality. Marches are not all that exciting. It’s something we turn out for so the numbers are good in the newspaper — so our legislators know that there are voices out there which are very very interested in equality … or peace… or what have you. The rally at the end of a march is usually a lot of preaching to the choir — trying to keep everyone’s spirits up as we continue on a long and ongoing journey.

On thing that really cracks me up about marches are the techniques — especially the chants. We could be marching about the most high-tech futuristic thing imaginable — say, a protest against human cloning — and we’d still be following the same old chant patterns. “What do we want?” “No human cloning!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” Or maybe…”Hey Hey, Ho Ho, human cloning’s got to go!”

Chanting really sucks when you have a migraine, which I did. But you know, I’m really glad I went. I met a friend of a friend of a friend and her sweet little boy. The little one had a blanket that said, “I love my two mommies.” While we were standing together listening to speeches, this young woman noticed “Christian” protesters near by. “Look,” she said in a small voice, “Thier sign says we are going to hell….they scare me.” She didn’t mean “They scare me because I might be going to hell.” She meant “They scare me. They could keep me marginalized forever. Their radical nature could become violent. They scare me.” What could I say? “I’m sorry” didn’t seem like enough.

I also heard a great story from one of the speakers. He was a young guy, probably late twenties. He told a story about how he was a part of a rainbow family, and how he was the only child in his school with two mom’s. He talked about how much safer he would have felt at school if he’d had “the armor that matrimony provided.” That story stayed with me.

I know this is a controversial and unsettled question for many people, but if you would like to work towards marriage equality check out these sites here and here.