The marriage equality legislation was set in motion this summer following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion. Here, supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage demonstrate near the Supreme Court on April 28, 2015, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
I am an old gay. This is an important part of the story that I am about to tell.
If you are an old gay like me, you well remember living in a world in which the vast majority of people disapprove of you. This was the United States up to about 20 years ago . It didn’t matter if you were promiscuous or flaming or even out — its simply mattered that you were gay and therefore a deviant who would go to hell.
I didn’t believe this. My friends and family didn’t believe this. Nonetheless, quite a few Americans believed it. An awful lot of Kansans believed it. To live in the world of 20 years ago as a gay man required the willingness to accept that most of the people you lived around and worked with didn’t just dislike you but disputed your basic personhood. Three years after I left the state to work in Florida, Kansans overwhelmingly voted to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution.