Author, A. J. Llewellyn

My beautiful niece and goddaughter, Eleanna, came to spend the night with me last night after telling me she needed bonding time.
At the age of 14, I reckon her parents and I are lucky she still wants to hang out with us.
I takes it while I can still gets it.
I have an eight year old nephew who is already telling his parents they are boring, so Eleanna is my shining hope that I am not hopelessly…well, boring.
In spite of a mountain of deadlines and my new macrobiotic diet I just knew she’d hate, she arrived all excited. Her parents are my cousin Chris and his husband, Tracy, who were married here in California before Prop 8 overturned gay marriage.
It has hurt her greatly that this proposition has personally affected her family, but she is an amazing young lady who thinks that one day the whole issue of gay marriage will be behind us.
I happen to agree.
Over dinner of rice and vegetables – “You’re kidding, right? Where are the cupcakes?” – we talked about her school, life, some Jonas kid she’s crushing on, and then we talked about Argentina and Hawaii.
In the same week our beloved Hawaii outlawed same-sex civil unions, Argentina became the first Latin America to legalize gay marriage.
For Eleanna, it’s only served to highlight the state of things back here in California.
This morning, as we turned on the radio to listen to the news as we made breakfast, the big story was that Argentina’s neighbors, Uruguay and Paraguay, are considering legalizing gay marriage too.
My girl pondered the ripple effect on America.
Call us a pair of Pollyannas, but we got excited at the prospect of tolerance one day being the law of the land here…and then the bomb dropped.
Talk show host Bill Handel is one of my faves and I often listen to him in the morning, Unfortunately he’s on vacation for the last 10 days has left his show in less capable hands. I was astonished when his gaggle of replacement hosts discussed Prop 8 and how a recent poll showed that 51% of Californians support same-sex marriage and yet these were the same statistics the polls showed last time when gay marriage was shot down by prop 8.
And then Rich Marrotta, a sports announcer I have usually admired said, “I am uncomfortable talking about gay marriage.”
He said a bunch of other things too. I noticed his co-hosts didn’t agree, but when things turned contentious, the subject was changed.
I wish they could have seen the look on my goddaughter’s face. The anguish and bewilderment were truly upsetting.
I have no idea why this subject continues to make straight men uncomfortable. We’re not asking them to be gay. We’re not asking them to don pink shorts and show up at Gay Pride.
I hope the day comes soon when this is no longer a discussion and we can move on.
I really, truly do.

Aloha oe

A.J.