A celebration, from Liberal Street Fighter
I was lucky enough to read this wonderful story in the local paper over breakfast yesterday morning:
A life of love was made public in end
For nearly 49 years, Richard Taylor and Ray Vahey did not speak openly about their long and loving relationship.
They did not tell family. They did not tell friends at work.
That changed a year ago, after Vahey was asked if they might speak at PrideFest. Together, they wrote a speech. Vahey gave it, Taylor at his side.
They went on to other appearances, including a state hearing last November in Madison, speaking against the proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage and civil unions in Wisconsin. They spoke at area churches. They were asked to speak at PrideFest in June, but Taylor, hospitalized with cancer, was too ill to go.
“We wrote the speech together at his hospital bed,” Vahey said. Then Taylor said something Vahey will never forget.
“Ray, remember, I’m standing right beside you,” he said.
“And I feel that now,” Vahey said.
Richard Taylor died Friday. He was 81.
This fall, the State of Wisconsin will be the first state to reject a Hate Amendment. No, I can’t prove my prediction, but I’ve learned to recognize signs of hope when I see them (maybe they stand out more in these dark times, like a bright rainbow in front of a dark cloud). This fall, the voters of Wisconsin will honor this relationship, and the numerous others like it, by voting NO against hate and bigotry.
Salon (you have to watch an ad) has some hopeful signs about the campaign to defeat the bigots’ attempt to enshrine hatred into the State of Wisconsin’s Constitution. After detailing the state Democratic Party’s elevation of stem cell research into a bonafide wedge issue of their very own, the story details the shifting cultural battle here.
And should stem cells begin to erode Green’s support, Republicans have already deployed their own proven wedge issue to rally their conservative base. If there has been an unstoppable force in American politics over the past decade, it is the march of opponents of same-sex marriage. They have launched voter referendums to ban the practice in 20 states and won in a landslide each time. Wisconsin will have an anti-gay marriage initiative on the ballot on Nov. 7, an amendment to the state Constitution that would ban same-sex unions.
The numbers, however, are not as favorable to Republicans as they have been in the past. Polls show that Wisconsin voters are more closely divided than voters have been in other states. The previous gay-marriage ban that came closest to failing, Oregon’s 2004 referendum, still drew 57 percent support. In Wisconsin, however, a poll conducted in mid-June by WisPolitics.com showed Wisconsinites evenly divided on a proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution that would prohibit same-sex marriage and civil unions.
The poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, found that 48.5 percent of Wisconsin adults supported the bill, while 47.8 opposed it and 3.7 percent were undecided or refused to answer. A similar poll released July 17 by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center showed 52.5 percent in favor of the bill, 43.8 percent opposed and 3 percent undecided.
The fight here is being led by Fair Wisconsin. They have built a coalition to oppose this travesty, reaching out to trade unions, business groups, churches and the elderly. Unlike the national party, the state Democratic party firmly opposes the Amendment, with Russ Feingold going further and backing full marriage rights for same-sex couples. From the Salon piece:
“Of those who identified themselves as liberals in [our] poll, more than 80 percent were opposed to [the amendment],” says J.R. Ross, editor of WisPolitics.com. “That was the most intense reaction from any of the groups. It seems that this is really a passionate issue for liberals, which may drive them to the polls this fall.” Kathy Cramer Walsh of the University of Wisconsin seconded the notion that the same-sex-marriage ban could boost liberal turnout.
The intensity of feeling against the ban has engendered an effective opposition movement. Amendment opponents have built the largest coalition seen to date on the issue, bringing in advocacy organizations from all over the political map as well as some of the state’s most influential politicians.
The state Democratic Party officially opposes the amendment, the first state party in the country to do so. Wisconsin’s two senators, Democrats Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, have come out against the ban, and Feingold has declared his support for the outright legalization of same-sex marriage. The state AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Medical Association and two sections of the Wisconsin Bar Association have all declared their opposition. According to Fair Wisconsin, the opponents’ lead activist group, anti-amendment forces count as supporters some 700 religious congregations representing almost 500,000 members.
Mike Tate, campaign director for Fair Wisconsin, believes some of his organization’s success in gaining mainstream political support reflects a national trend. “I think a lot of it has to do with the national mood shifting on this,” Tate says. “I think the public’s just sick of this being brought up time and time again. They know it’s divisive; they know it’s mean-spirited.”
This fall, Wisconsin will be the first state to say no to this tactic of hate and division. This is how a true liberal populism can reclaim our country and change the future, by fighting for what is right and not bowing before hate and fear.
There is too little love in the world, and a civilized people would do everything they could to foster it, support it, appreciate it. Go read the whole piece about Taylor & Vahey, but I’ll leave you with this last excerpt:
Taylor, who had a high school education, was also self-taught, widely read in economics and philosophy, history and politics. As the two men grew older, they came to see history in a new light.
“Richard voluntarily put himself into harm’s way to protect his country and the rights of all Americans of that day, and all of the generations that have followed. Now there is an attempt to separate Richard from society and take away his right to equality under the law.”
Over the years, they lived in Ohio, Illinois, California, New Jersey and Virginia. In 2000 they decided to move to Milwaukee, a city they knew from visits to Taylor’s brother.
Finally, they decided to step out of the closet for good.
“I never told my sister about us until the night we testified in Madison,” Vahey said, adding that she took the news without surprise or judgment. “It was like the elephant in the living room. It was there, but no one addressed it.”
“Euphemisms like ‘partnership’ or ‘union’ set us apart from society,” Vahey said at the Legislative hearing last fall. “Substitute terms that categorize and separate us become our yellow Star of David badges. . . . Here at home, African-Americans learned long ago that ‘separate but equal’ is not equal.”
Taylor and Vahey planned a wedding ceremony for Sept. 16, the 50th anniversary of their life together. But when Taylor became increasingly ill, they had moved up the date, marrying in a religious ceremony at the hospital on Memorial Day. Invitations now will be sent for a special memorial event Sept. 16, which also will be a fund-raiser for Fair Wisconsin’s anti-amendment efforts.
