Roger Ebert truly has found his voice amidst his own personal pain. In a long, winding piece, he explains his support for equal marriage rights, starting with the lesbian couple his mother worked for:
My mother confided that Dee and Dollie had asked her to be one of their maids of honor.
“My land! I was never so surprised in my life!”
“What did you say?”
“I told them of course I would. They’ve both been so nice to me.”
“What kind of a marriage is it going to be?”
“It can’t be a church wedding, that’s for sure. One of their friends is some kind of a minister, and he’s going to perform the ceremony in somebody’s back yard. I’ve been helping them with their wedding plans, because they don’t seem to know the first thing about planning a wedding.”
What struck me was that my mother, born on a farm near Taylorville in 1912, seemed to take this so casually. I doubt she would have been pleased if one day I’d suddenly announced I was gay. But it was all right for other people. The Catholic Church forbade it, but then the Church said you shouldn’t do a lot things that people just went right ahead and did anyway.
Elsewhere, Ebert tackles the political side of the equation:
Now the idea of gay marriage is much before us. They’ve been made legal in some states. They are fiercely opposed, most often on religious grounds. Politicians find it prudent to play to both sides of the street by saying they “have no opposition to civil ceremonies.” I’m disappointed in Obama for taking that approach. He supports the civil rights but opposes gay marriage while citing his church’s teachings. At least you can’t accuse him of catering to his base.
It’s all worth reading, so do.
