It's time for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I'm catching up with Week 12, and may do some of this catching up out of order. I'm mostly out of order these days, anyway. The theme for Week 12 is "Historic Event," in which we may blog about an ancestor who was involved in or witnessed a historic event, or about one we were involved in or witnessed.
In the summer of 2013, I was working on my master's thesis at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. The subject was marriage in St. Augustine, Florida between 1784 and 1803 under a certain royal proclamation. I was doing research at the Library of Congress, in the Manuscript Division. I took the bus from my lodgings in my nephew's condo to a couple blocks from the LOC, a jaunt that took me past the Supreme Court building.
It was 26 June 2013. As I approached the Supreme Court building, I could see that there was a massive crowd gathered in front of the edifice. As I came closer, a massive cheer went up from the crowd. Proceeding into the crowd, I found a news team and ask them what had just happened. A cameraman told me that the inaptly named "Defense of Marriage" Act, which invalidated gay and lesbian marriages, had been overturned by the Court. I'm straight but not narrow, a woman married to a man, but I happen to believe that people in love who wish to make a commitment to each other should be able to marry if they so choose, no matter who they are.
Why shouldn't they have an opportunity to be just as miserable as the rest of us? A comedian asked that question. I see the other side: why shouldn't they have the opportunity to be happy or at least content, as so many of us are. In the case of my husband and me, it's been 54 years.
Nearby in the crowd at the Supreme Court was a couple of young women beaming and hugging each other. I looked at them and smiled, and they told me they had just been married in a state where gay marriage was legal. I told them, "Congratulations -- and congratulations," on their marriage and on that law inimical to their happiness having just been overturned. Having witnessed this small slice of history, I proceeded on my way to the LOC and had a fine day of research.
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