Eric and Eugene Get Married

A Rick Beck Story

quillswritersrealm@yahoo.com

It was raining in Seattle. No newsflash there, but it was also raining in Portland. That meant something to Eric and Eugene, although, in spite of the rain, the sun is shining brightly on them. You see, Eric and Eugene are going to get married.

They’ll drive twenty miles north into Washington to have the ceremony in a marrying state. A recent Oregon constitutional amendment forbade equal marriage there.

Eric and Eugene noticed when equal marriage passed only a few miles away. It was close enough to drive in a few minutes, but they decided to wait until equal marriage passed in Oregon, where they lived. There was no rush.

A move was afoot to put equal marriage on the Oregon ballot in 2014. With the progressive nature of Oregonians, it’s a matter of time before equal marriage is the law there. Eric and Eugene have already waited sixty years. They could wait for it to pass in Oregon.

In 1950s America, when Eric and Eugene fell in love, no one knew there were gay couples. Troops are coming home from the Korean War. America is ascendant, except on an Asian peninsula, where we failed to win the war.

In 1950 Vietnam belongs to the French, when Eric and Eugene met. There wasn’t a single American in Vietnam. Failing to win the Korean War would make politicians think twice before sending American troops to fight another Asian war, wouldn’t they?

America was the only major nation in the world with a fully functioning economy in the 50s, after WWII ended a few years before. Europe was shattered. Asia was in ruin. Rebuilding was underway. Goods from America flowed as we fed and rebuilt the world. The only obstacle was switching from a wartime to a peacetime economy, after fighting to free the world from Hitler’s grasp. America was in the pink.

In 1953 Eric and Eugene were getting acquainted. Soldiers were coming home to Levitt built houses popping up everywhere. People could finally afford a home. America was booming and life was good.

In 1953 troops came home to marry sweethearts and move into cookie cutter houses in a cookie cutter neighborhood to raise cookie cutter kids.

We knew what a 50s family was like. We knew some of them by name. There were the Cleavers with The Beaver, the Andersons with Kitten, and the Nelsons with David and Ricky. They gave us lessons in what being a cookie cutter family meant.

It was a good time for Eric and Eugene. They fell in love and had a different kind of family. Everything was swell as long as you were content to have cookie cutter kids and live happy cookie cutter lives. No one asked why, since everyone else did it the same way.

In 1950s America gay rights don’t exist. The word homosexual is a textbook word. There would be no marriage for Eric and Eugene. They were careful about who knew they were in love. Cookie cutter America wasn’t coming to their door.

The Mattachine Society, circa 1950, and the Daughters of Bilitis, circa 1955, were groups for gay men and gay women respectively. They lived very different lives, and had no desire to be like everyone else. The gay rights movement had begun, quietly, but it was all outside the view of people with cookie cutter lives. Don’t ask, don’t tell had come to America.

The pace of life in the 1950s was low speed and definitely geared toward conformity. You did things the way your grandfather did them. How could anyone go wrong doing that?

Since homosexuals had no rights, no one saw a need, except for homosexuals. We were becoming restless. We could be arrested. That text book word was a crime. Homosexuals were jailed in 50s America.

Eric and Eugene didn’t talk about getting married back then. How not to be arrested was discussed. In the state of Washington in the 50s men were doing time for being homosexual. No one went to Washington to get married in those days. Police had an eye on us.

In the 50s Senator Joe McCarthy had our names, along with the names of Communists who worked in the government. The names were on a blank sheet of paper he carried in his briefcase. Tail gunner Joe would whip it out, waving it to incite his audience, denouncing communists and homosexuals, no matter where they lived.

Joe McCarthy was a Republican, and even then, facts had little to do with what he said to the cookie cutter crowds.

It was a time of conformity. To step out of line was to risk having the finger pointed at you. McCarthy sent waves of fear through the good people in America.

Almost sounds like Republicans today, but it’s also how they did it in the 50s. Truth has little to do with their message of hatred. Their playbook hasn’t changed but the times have. People are getting tired of one crisis after another with the constant threat of danger.

In 50s America Eric and Eugene met and fell in love during what’s called the McCarthy Era, when that demagogue spread hatred for homosexuals. It was best not to talk too loudly about your love if it wasn’t the right kind. People were listening.

In 1950s America Dr. Franklin Kameny was fired from his job as a government astronomer. He was an ’Admitted homosexual.’ This is how Dr. Kameny answered Tail gunner Joe’s hate spewed speeches.

Frank Kameny wasn’t preparing to fight a battle, he was going to war. There would be no surrender. He would take no prisons. Frank was fighting for his rights. He knew there were consequences. He knew he could end up in prison, but he wasn’t go quietly.

Starting in the 50s, until his recent death, Dr. Kameny fought for equal rights for gays. He fought discrimination in the courts. It was his job once he was fired for being gay, during the time of the homosexual witch hunt. The fight for gay rights was on.

Frank came up with the phrase, "Gay is good." His papers and banners are in the Smithsonian institution. His house is now on the registry of National Historical Landmarks, and he would not shut up.

Many early gay rights advances came after lawsuits Frank filed. Like in the early days of marriage equality, Frank lost every case. As soon as the decision was handed down, he filed another case, until one day when he won one.

Being gay was risky business when Eric and Eugene met. As the 50s passed, it became even more dangerous, once gay rights began to go public. Gay activists were watched and harassed, but in D. C. no one wanted to give Frank Kameny ammunition for another lawsuit. He may mostly lose, but the inevitable publicity made public his cause.

Eric and Eugene were in Chicago then. They’d met through a friend and have been together ever since. How wonderful love is and how happy they were to find each other, but Eric and Eugene couldn’t get married no matter how much they loved one another.

Thinking they might one day marry in 1960s, 70s, and 80s America was folly. Gay rights at best was tolerated. Only because of a bunch of noisy drag queens in New York City did the laws against being homosexual begin to change.

Once we were no longer criminals, they decided we were mentally disordered. That fell apart too, when psychiatrists admitted there was no basis for calling homosexuality a disorder. Gays were healthy, thank you very much. Who saw that coming?

We were here, quite queer, and America got used to us, but not everyone was a believer. The fundamentalists, who think everyone goes to hell but them, put homosexuals at the top of their fund raising. They hated the idea we were out and proud. They hate a lot.

Love is it’s own reward and being together for sixty years had to be a comforting to Eric & Eugene. Making it legal for financial considerations wasn’t going to happen. Everything Eric and Eugene did to protect each other was done through an attorney. Even with an attorney, families could contest a partner’s rights.

Families were able to tie any property up in court for years, even when their legal documents were in order. In a hostile country, nothing was legally settled for LGBT people, not really.

We needed the protection of marriage. We intended to get it.

Eric and Eugene are going to get married. They drive the twenty-miles to the Clark County Courthouse. I imagine to them it felt as thought they were in a dream.

Everything goes fine. After going through the steps, the ceremony is underway. Rings worn for years are removed and returned to their fingers. The justice declares, “By the power vested in me by the state of Washington, I declare you wed.”

The actual ceremony took a few minutes. It took Eric and Eugene sixty years to reach the courthouse, but they are legally married now.

Eugene was willing to wait for Oregon to pass equal marriage, until he was told he wouldn’t live to see it. Crossing the border to get married became a necessity for legal reasons, but there’s another legal snag. It isn’t clear which rights will come with their marriage. Sixty years and Eric and Eugene aren’t equal yet.

Eugene doesn’t know if his social security benefits can be passed to his legal spouse, Eric. If the federal government allows equal treatment under the law, Eric will be a little better off by collecting Eugene’s social security. It isn’t a big difference but it’s something. It comes automatically with heterosexual marriage. Will gay marriages be equal to the straight version? Not yet.

Once again we stand at a crossroads for fairness and equality in America. Will the federal government finally treat everyone as equals? Or will the struggle for equality continue? Will the loudest voices continue to control the conversation, or will what’s right win out?

Eric and Eugene got married. Isn’t it wonderful?

It only took sixty years. The world is no doubt a different place today, because a lot of people fought for what’s right.

Being gay is easier. It is something to see for those of us who have witnessed the entire journey from there, to here.

Eric and Eugene got married.

America is trying to stand up to be the place we’ve been led to believe it can be. Those of us who lived through it all, and can’t marry the one we loved, are delighted for you, who can marry. We fought to get here, and for a year gay marriage has moved at light speed.

Every right LGBT people enjoy came after a fight, beginning back when Eric and Eugene met. We’ve come a long way, but it took years to prepare the way for what is happening today.

There are battles to be fought; more rights to be won. Join the battle to see to it that LGBT people have equal rights everywhere in America. We’ve conquered the easy turf, and the difficult states are ahead. They’ll do all within their power to stop us.

We can’t be stopped. We’re ready for them now. They are fighting a losing battle.

Civil Rights are marching in America. There are no equal rights until everyone is equal.