Editor's note: This post originally ran here at CL's Daily Loaf blog. Lorna Bracewell wrote it. The post is wonderfully moving and she is one of our many prized Music Contributors so I'm bringing it back to Tampa Calling. After all, this is her home. And to quote fellow Tampa Bay singer/songwriter Ronny Elliott: "I love Lorna and I’m proud to know her. She’s a citizen, alright. A model citizen."
Yesterday ranks amongst the more surreal days of my life. It lacked most of the mundane features of a typical day like eating, having a moment of privacy or understanding what the hell is going on around you. Now that the news cameras are gone, the radio interviews are done and the documentary film maker is no longer following me around, I'm going to take a few moments to reflect back on this Dali painting of a day and what I think it means.
Impact Florida, an organization of which I became the director barely two weeks ago and which itself became an organization just a week or two prior to that, staged a demonstration for marriage equality outside of Governor Charlie Crist's wedding and reception last night. We wore bright pink shirts, we passed out big stickers that said "Congratulations, Governor! When can I get married?" and we held signs that said things like, "Fairness for all families!" and "Can I vote on your marriage now?"
I don't think any of us anticipated the level of interest our little get together would generate. You see, we all seem to perceive ourselves as pretty run-of-the-mill folks. Sure, a lot of us are gay, but that's about as exotic as we get. Many of us have been in committed realtionships (what would be known as "marriages" if the laws of our state and our country weren't so incomprehensibly stupid) for years. We work ordinary jobs and lead ordinary lives. One of our members told me last night as we shivered under an oak tree in Williams Park that he was so excited to be what he called "out on the town." "My partner and I hardly ever leave the house!" he said.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2008.