I was pleased to learn that The Auburn Plainsman has endorsed the concept of equal benefits for same-sex couples on the Auburn faculty and staff. The Plainsman has long held a position of leadership among college newspapers in the state for thoughtful and courageous support of unpopular opinions, and it appears that this current staff is upholding that tradition.
There are many Alabamians, especially among those of us who were born in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, who are truly distressed by the idea of same-sex marriage. The prospect of open acceptance of what is already an established practice disturbs and even frightens them. As we grapple with this inevitable social change, it may help to remember that our parents' generation dealt with a very similar situation when we were children. Then, the issue was inter-racial marriage. Then, as now, ambitious religious leaders and politicians thundered about the disasters that awaited a society that allowed such perfidy to occur, and the legislature passed laws strictly forbidding the practice. Today, we look back on all that storm and fury a little puzzled as to what all the fuss was about. We are more than a little embarrassed by that part of our history, and those laws that were passed so enthusiastically then have now been quietly repealed.
I expect that our grandchildren will have the same reaction to this present controversy. By the time they are adults, the idea of same-sex marriage will no longer be new and frightening. Society will have learned that same-sex marriages are pretty much like their heterosexual counterparts - they can be long-lasting loving relationships, or they can be abusive and cruel, with the great majority of them falling somewhere between those two poles. Our grandchildren will understand that neither society nor the institution of marriage is threatened by the fact that some people choose to spend their life with a person of the same sex. They will have come to believe that all of us, gay or straight, have an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas R. Borden Waugh, Alabama January 20, 2010
Note: A slightly edited version of this essay was printed in the Montgomery Advertiser on January 24, 2010.