Pre-Indigo

So I've finally finished reading my first novel on the Kindle!

I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. I actually had to look at my Kindle to remember who the author is. Is that due to my horrible memory or is it caused by an increasing fracture between the reader and the book? Then again, how does picking up a book remind us who the author is any more than picking up a Kindle does?

Moving on.

In preparing a few questions for my phone interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, I thought I'd take a quick gander at the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) since everything I knew was secondhand information. I might as well insert a link to the Wikipedia page here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act) since that's where I went.

I don't know why, but I had thought that Bill Clinton is a good guy. Despite his fling with Lewinsky and his creation of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, I had somehow been given the impression that he deserved the nation's nostalgia. Maybe it was the bumper sticker "I miss Bill" or his pot-induced determination to consume a pig on Family Guy. Either way, it is important to note that he signed DOMA. Here's what DOMA means to me:

1. Federally (as a representation of the will of our nation) I am not allowed to marry my boyfriend –– marriage is defined by federal law as a union between a man and a woman.

2. If a same-sex couple, let's say a pair of Iowans, gets married in their home state where it is legal, their marriage does not have to be, and likely will not be, recognized in another state where marriage is not legal (cough CALIFORNIA cough).

3. FURTHERMORE, "No State ... shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State ... respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State ... or a right or claim arising from such relationship." I'm sorry, "a right or claim arising from such relationship"? Maybe same-sex marriage is a lot for the queer community to be asking for right now. WTF!? I was surprised when Prop 8 passed, but now I really don't know why.

Had I been up to speed with this law, I likely would have been just as pissed off as everyone else in the gay community when the Obama administration backpedaled and defended the Act.

Here's my solution: Let's take away the rights of every married couple for a month, or even a week, but let them keep their titles. Then we'll see if all of this is just about the term "marriage" or if there's a little bit more to it than that.