It seems almost impossible that this Gay Pride month of June 2013 marks ten years of liberty for the LGBT community. It seems like a small back-step in time to that summer when two remarkable things happened.

On June 26^th, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of Lawrence v. Texas was announced. By a sweeping 6-3 ruling, Gay people never again had to fear arrest and imprisonment for the 'majorities' dirty-minded imaginings into our bedrooms. The Justices at the time did not have to rule in language that liberated the entire country – they could have limited the decision to the statutes in question in the state of Texas – but they did the brave thing and struck down all such bias that still remained on the law book of every state and territory in the union. Much speculation existed at the time that this was done as amends for the almost shocking anti-gay upholding of such laws in 1986, even though that case involved a clear violation of the victim's civil rights not to be spied upon.

For the 2003 case, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

For the 1986 case, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowers_v._Hardwick

If you read the sobering details of each case, you will see the victims in both instances were actually framed by homophobic police officers.

But the second thing came about in an entirely different way. While the Pride celebrations of that June were extra raucous, a TV couple was winning hearts and minds on a reality TV show called "The Amazing Race," and CBS was doing the brave thing by showing how rampant homophobia still was among the American people.

A same-sex married couple was out and running the race around the world as everyday people. Chip Arndt and Reichen Lehmkuhl were just themselves, and suffered the almost constant barrage of hateful language from some other teams. If you do not believe me, watch the season, but as I say, it was CBS that was heroic. Such abuse has been the lot of our people for a very long time, but it was almost never broadcast as even existing on American television. But by Chip and Reichen being who they are, focused on each other (and being downright beautiful men!), the public fell totally in love with them. They were American heroes, rolling up their sleeves, and doing what needed to be done.

To cap off the glorious summer – ten years ago – Chip and Reichen won! On August 21^st they proved that the good guys can, and sometimes, do win.

Here they are crossing the finish line:

This is the way they were shown every week in the opening:

And here's the fantastic wikipedia page on their season:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_4

Hearts and minds, one at a time, and things do change.

So now, we stand upon the shoulders of another momentous June, and hope. The U.S. Supreme Court will shortly issue its decisions on two cases that could sweep prejudice aside as broadly as their 2003 ruling did, that is, if they have the guts to do what the majority of the American public wants them to do.

To mark the threshold of Marriage Equality, I have written a second operetta libretto based on the comedy stylings of Gilbert and Sullivan.

I imagined that Reality TV could take over our highest judicial arena and influence the way the Court could generate a ruling. But it turns out Reality TV people are people too, and somethings do not change.

The work is entitled "To Defend Marriage, Act! or The Sanctity of Marriage-a-Palooza"

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/ac-benus/todefendmarriageact-operettalibretto

Happy Pride Month, everybody!