Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Waiting for SCOTUS

We will know (as early as today, as late as Thursday) exactly how the Supreme Court feels about our marriages. Whether it condones us or condemns us. As their current session comes to a close the rulings on DOMA and Prop. 8 are imminent. And the closer they get the more I start to feel a mad rush of anxiety, excitement, fear and impatience. I feel all those feelings, all at once and all together in a muddle of hope and terror so strong I don’t dare not breathe. It feels like we’re all holding our breath. Because what those six men and three women say is – quiet literally – the law. Sure, they don’t make laws, but they uphold or strike down those that exist and in doing so are the definitive final word on our land. And so, we hold our breath.

Will we move forward, will progress prevail? Or will we be forced to wait until justice catches up with inherent equality? Ugh. I can’t face the best of times/worst of times uncertainty.

All I know is we’re ready, and love can’t wait any longer.

UPDATE: Tomorrow will be the last day of the session. So we will know, one way or another. Nerves don't fail me now.



5 comments:

Unknown said...

We are all on pins and needles! No matter what, I will marry my beloved next year!!!

Your friend, Rusty said...

One of my buddies stayed up all night and was 8th in line to get into SCOTUS today. Really hoping we get a good result and it happens today.

On the other hand, I'm afeared of what they're going to do to the Voting Rights Act.

Carmen SanDiego said...

As the foreign half of a binational married couple I wake up at 7am every decision day, waiting to hear from the Supremes. I am tired of waking up early, decide already!

pecola said...

It'll happen tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas.

Actually, the full name of that case is John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner v Texas.

People don't know much about Tyron Garner, but he was an out black, gay man arrested on that fateful September night, alongside John Lawrence in Houston, TX.

I want Prop 8 to be tossed out. I want DOMA to be held unconstitutional (all parts of it, not just Section 3). But in the event that we're forced to continue to claim our equality at the ballot box, I want the Tyron Garners of today to become accidental heroes and win their rights...and today, with the Court's decision on the Voting Rights Act, that became much, much more difficult.

Which is all to say: these cases intersect and it diminishes our interconnected-ness and renders a substantial portion of the LGBT community invisible, to not acknowledge that fact. Whatever happens tomorrow, the fight for equality took a sizable blow today.

Anonymous said...

I am more concerned now with how SCOTUS will rule on DOMA and PROP 8 issues, in light of how they pretty much decimated the Voting Rights Act in their decision today - they apparently failed to pay attention to the 2012 elections and the GOPs attempt to suppress the voting rights of minorities - I hope that they don't screw over the LGBT community based on the advances that we seem to finally be making, slowly but surely in states across the US and in the way many people have finally come around to agreeing that LGBT members deserve marriage equality. I hope that these advances don't have them believing that someone else will sort it out so that they don't have to decide.