Lesson in Accepting Love for Love

It's a wonderful day here in vacation day land. Originally I scheduled today off because we were supposed to head down to Springfield with my aunts for a Marriage Equality rally. Sadly, my one aunt travels a lot for work and was sent back overseas again and my other aunt's dad is in the hospital right now so she just didn't feel up to traveling too far from him. I am disappointed that we aren't able to go, but I'm happy for a day all to myself.

I debated over the last two weeks when I found out our trip was not going to happen whether or not I should just cancel my day off and save it for later. I just couldn't bare to part with it though. Vacation days around my office are hard to get. See, we have a small office of 7 people and only one person is allowed to be off at a time. Since I'm second to last women on the totem pole and the other girls have been there long enough to amass an insane amount of vacation time, getting a day off is a precious commodity. Every holiday and possible long weekend is already slotted to them which makes finding a day to actually use mine rather difficult.

Day to myself aside, it worked out that we're not going because Lena has her first states test today. For the past week, we've been studying our butts off for this thing (see: There's an App for That!) I had planned to call her off school today, because I really believe that she would learn so much more at the rally than she would in a normal day of school. Typically, I'm an attendance Nazi and she better be damn near dying to stay home from school. Occasionally Once a year though, I will allow her a free day if I feel it will be educationally enriching. I let her play hookie on a Friday last year to go to the zoo with her Aunt Frissy. Activities like that will always hold more beneficial in my mind than the monotonous days of regurgitating the information they force feed our kids every day. Usually by the time she gets home from school she can't remember a dang thing they went over in class, but she can still tell me the diameter of a grizzly bear's paw and how much fish a dolphin eats in a day. If she retains more knowledge, I'm willing to let a day off school slide.

When my aunt first mentioned the March On Springfield trip, I already knew that it was something I wanted Lena to be a part of. I'm not overly political and I recognize that I could potentially be opening up Pandora's box here, but I am a huge supporter of Marriage Equality. My aunts are two of the most kind and brilliant women I know and the fact that they love each other is looked down upon literally makes me sick to my stomach.

A couple years ago, Illinois finally allowed "civil unions." While they're still not allowing it to be called "marriage" my aunts were allowed to be legally recognized as a couple. In my opinion, it was a major stride in the right direction. I remember getting the nervous phone call from them, because they wanted Lena to be their flower girl. I was completely in shock that they asked with a disclaimer of "We understand if you're not comfortable with the idea" before ever giving me the opportunity to answer. Of course she'll be in your wedding!!! Teaching Lena acceptance and loving people for who they are and not who you expect them to be has always been a major value in our household. I couldn't believe that they thought for even a moment that I would say no to this. It breaks my heart to think that they literally felt shame in asking us to stand with them and support the love they've been sharing for the past 20 years. Even though they know we love them, they were afraid of asking us to love them publicly. 

I've always been a supporter of allowing people to be who they are, but it was that moment, that phone call, when I really made the decision to be more out with my opinion. I have signed every petition that I've come across, I follow and support many LGBT social communities, I share their content, I have proudly worn the badge for equality during the times the issue has come up for vote, and most importantly I teach acceptance to my children. There is no promise that it will be granted during my lifetime, however if I instill the values into my girls maybe, just maybe, it will happen during theirs. Because honestly, there is nothing wrong with love...