On Being an Anecdote

The wife and I made the Wall Street Journal’s Life and Culture section today. Seriously. Featured image and everything. Here’s the link:

Jewelers Woo Engaged Same-Sex Couples – WSJ

Our story opens the article:

Close enough.

As far as I can recall, this is the first time I’ve been quoted. Mentioned maybe but never quoted. It’s an odd feeling. The words attributed to me don’t ring false but I can’t help raising an eyebrow. Is that exactly what I said? Does this story, this little blurb of my life, really represent me? Does it accurately represent my marriage? Not really.

This article doesn’t show much about us. Barely a glimpse really. You can’t see the grit that makes up our daily life: the mortgage and walking the dog and making dinner and shoveling snow at six in the morning. These few sentences don’t show the love that drew us together, the marriage that’s simply awesome.

But that’s ok.

In this anecdote, we’re an example of the new normal. We sit on that fence between normal and unknown. Like any engaged couple we needed to buy wedding rings. Unlike that other couple (that straight couple), we also needed to explain ourselves. Fine. Hopefully what we did in that store, and with this article, is have that mildly uncomfortable conversation for other couples. Hopefully we took one for the team.

That’s love.

Advertising Equality

Political yard signs started popping up early this summer here in Minneapolis and none have been as popular as the Vote No signs:

In case you haven’t heard, Minnesotans will vote whether or not define marriage as between one man and one woman. No, wait, let me clarify. That is already on the books. In November, Minnesotans will vote whether or not this definition of marriage should be added to the state constitution. Voting no will change nothing. Voting yes will make us look like jackasses in the history books.

Oh Minnesota, let’s stick with the lakes for notoriety not bigotry.

On the plus side, not often can I walk down a residential Midwestern street and know – know with real, unadulterated certainty – that at least some of the residents support me. As the girlfriend and I think about moving in the near future, these signs tell us where we might want to settle. These signs advertise where our family will find acceptance. No matter what happens in November, that’s a damn good feeling.