The parade of gay marriages all weekend in San Francisco has been amazing. The idea of it--the political shot over the bow--gets me exhilarated, the images of the actual people realizing a lifelong dream to marry their soulmate like a normal person makes me cry.
And the stories I keep getting from readers describing the feeling as they walk past the ecstatic couples . . . that just makes me want to be there. None of the news stories I've seen has captured it like some of these letters. I kinda wish I hadn't surrounded myself with single people--can't think of any good friends ready to hop on a plane to get done. Mostly I just wish it could be everywhere.
But it's not, it's San Francisco, and that's the big problem. This big gay wedding weekend is going to incite one hell of a legal battle--getting the ball rolling slightly ahead of MA, but on an additional track, eliminating the fluke factor, which is important in public opinion if not the courts.
But that's the other problem. San Francisco. Anything that happens there will be written off as a fluke, especially anything gay. So the big gay town of San Francisco legalized marriage for themselves, big fucking deal, that's how most of the public will read this. And the inmates at San Quentin voted themselves a blanket pardon, so what? (Is San Quentin still open? I'm afraid I'm not current on my big, important prisons.)
So this story just lit my eyes up this morning. From the Chicago Sun Times:
Daley on gay marriage: 'no problem'
Mayor Daley said Wednesday he would have "no problem" with County Clerk David Orr issuing marriage licenses to gay couples -- and Orr said he's open to a San Francisco-style protest if a consensus can be built.
"They're your doctors, your lawyers, your journalists, your politicians," the mayor said. "They're someone's son or daughter. They're someone's mother or father. . . . I've seen people of the same sex adopt children, have families. [They're] great parents.
"Some people have a difference of opinion -- that only a man and a woman can get married. But in the long run, we have to understand what they're saying. They love each other just as much as anyone else.''
A devout Catholic, Daley scoffed at the suggestion that gay marriage would somehow undermine the institution of marriage between a man and a woman.
"Marriage has been undermined by divorce, so don't tell me about marriage. You're not going to lecture me about marriage. People should look at their own life and look in their own mirror. Marriage has been undermined for a number of years if you look at the facts and figures on it. Don't blame the gay and lesbian, transgender and transsexual community. Please don't blame them for it," he said.
Daley said he has no control over marriage licenses in Cook County. But if Orr wants to take that bold step, the mayor has no problem with it.
Orr said he was "game to looking at options" provided a consensus could be built.
"I'm fed up with people being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. We can't even pass a law that eliminates discrimination against gay couples. [But] whatever you do when it comes to challenging laws, you want it to be effective and not knee-jerk," Orr said.
The clerk noted the protest that has gay couples from around the nation lining up for hours outside San Francisco's City Hall was meticulously planned.
It wasn't just "the clerk waking up one day and deciding to marry someone," Orr said. It had the support of the entire "city apparatus" in San Francisco -- from the mayor, City Council and advocacy groups on down. That's the model that would have to be followed here, Orr said.
"Whether or not, here in Cook County, we should be considering a San Francisco or other kind of protest, that is what some of us are discussing. I'm quite interested in exploring that with key players in the city and county. I'm already discussing that with a number of advocacy and key groups. I would like to discuss it with the mayor," Orr said.
Now that would be amazing. A heartland city like Chicago, a famous mayor, a devout Catholic . . .
It sounds like a long ways from a done deal, but just the business of them talking about it openly in the press could inspire officials to step forward in other cities. How far could Boulder or Madison be behind if Chicago is talking about doing it?
God, if we could really get the spigots popping open in towns and cities and states all over America, this would really be amazing. This is a wonderful thing, coming from elected officials, so it can't just be written off as liberal judges defying their authority to pass legislation from the bench.
This is either going to scare the shit out of the American people, or resign them to it as a fait acompli.
I think they were already scared shitless. The second flank could really begin changing this into a reality.
God, it's exhilarating to have been born into the late 20th century.
Dutton (Penguin) in early 2009. 
