So here we are, the morning after. Four more years. That's terrific, don't get me wrong, but as good as it is, I don't think the re-election of the President is the real game-changer that emerged last night (this morning, actually, out in these parts - it's been a long day).
No - the stunning, astonishing, and unprecedented thing - the thing that to me presages what America's Going to Look Like Next - is that in four separate states, four separate attempts, in different ways, to stop the rise of marriage equality went down in flames. Not by vast margins, it's true, but decisively enough. That's simply amazing. For me, of course, this is a Big Deal issue; for me and Mr. Muscato, the lack of official recognition of our family is what prevents us from living in the U.S. We love our life, on the whole, as quasi-nomadic expatriates. In our nine years, we've lived in four countries, dragging our selves and our chattel and our longsuffering animals across two continents. Even so, maybe it's time to go home, for me, and for Mr. Muscato to come along for the ride. Last night's wins, I hope, take us that much closer, opening the way for the end of the Defense of Marriage Act and to immigration reform that means I'm no longer an exile.
To celebrate, here's Miss Streisand to sing us in - she's got two numbers, in fact, as I was searching for a killer "Happy Days are Here Again" and ran across this clip, in which she first sings the hell out of "Cry Me a River" (a pleasant sentiment, I think, to direct at the Republicans and Fundamentalists and general Neanderthals who more or less went down in flames yesterday). The quality's not great, but we even get a nice little Dinah Shore intro; at least she was wise enough not to sing (only Garland comes off well in a duet with Young Barbra). I love this phase of Streisand's career, when she's still raw and bizarre and so very, very young. She never seems to be so much performing as just barely containing the voice, never quite sure what's going to come next and just as startled as we at what does.
Speaking of startled - I am, for it seems that this first aired on May 12, 1963. I was born the next day. And here we are, all these years later. Howdy, gay times, indeed.
you're abso-fucking-lutely right sir.
ReplyDeleteisn't it just too too?
Remarkable - yay for Maine! (and Maryland and Washington - and in the latter you can have a spliff to celebrate!) Jx
ReplyDeletePS and yay to Miss Streisand, too...
Bravo for equal rights, and Babs, and all that!
ReplyDeleteDo come home, Muscato. The sandlands have had you long enough. It's our turn.
Yes it would be so lovely to call you our own here in these land of states!
ReplyDeleteAbout the young Miss Streisand, I have a very clear memory of one night a couple of months before my 6th birthday. My mother (as if accepting her role in 'early gayling development') breathlessly announced to me on the afternoon of April 28th, 1965, "You don't have to go to bed on time tonight. There's something on television that you've got to see!" It was, of course the broadcast of the CBS television special "My Name Is Barbra".
This is the same mother who would feign utter shock and disgust about 12 years later when I admitted to her that I was gay. Dear mother is gone now but Barbra and I are still here. Come home and be with us!