pride and prejudice

the supreme court of the commonwealth of massachusetts declared that same sex couples have the right to marry, that anything less is a violation of their constitutional rights. the bible bullies, the vituperationists, the multi-divorced family valuers, the abominationists, the virginity commissars have all of course gone gaga.

the governor of the state and the mayor of the state's capital will march in saturday's gay pride parade. tens of thousands more will march with them. you will see more marching lawyers than dykes on bikes. you will see more office workers than leather lennys. you will see more suburban home owners than disco ditzers. you will find that the brazillian float has the best dancers and the best music.

you will not see cardinal o'malley, dozens of whose priests have been marched to court and thence to jail, march. you will not see the vote on marriage people march. you will not see the fundy fulminators march.

you will not find the former cardinal in town. he hied himself and his red hat to the vatican, a step or two ahead of ignominy and a possible felony indictment. a decades-long coverup of pederast priests was fine with him; an open pride in one's eros is not.

these christo-neanderthals have evolved an elaborate theology of disdain, a cold loathing, a tax-exempt campaign of derision, using the cross as a battering ram, a billyclub. it is shabby, medieval, irreligious.

but what really frosts them is simpler: two boys kissing. and happy to do so.

so we will ignore them and have our genial saturday saturnalia, our music and speeches, our affections and celebration, our friends, our history, our lovers, our pride, our lives.