So Dry Your Tears, I say...

I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown Madison...
Ob-observing the hypocrites
As they would mingle with the good people we'd meet.
Good friends we have had,
oh good friends we've lost along the way...
In this bright future you can't forget your past,
So dry your tears I say...
-----------------

One person's opinion that I am particularly interested in reading, of Virginia Wolf et. al. vs. Scott Walker -- the equal rights lawsuit in Wisconsin that dropped yesterday -- is blogger Ann Althouse.

She has shared many details of her personal life in her art-like blog:
an East Coast upbringing, a first marriage and two sons with the writer Richard Cohen, divorce, and then a much celebrated public courtship and marriage to Laurence Meade. They eloped from Wisconsin to Colorado, availing themselves of the marital laws there, and returning with the State's blessing and all the marital privileges and societal accompaniments designed to support heterosexual couples for the purposes of child bearing and rearing. (No fine for marrying out of state; no legal threat of imprisonment upon return codified in the law. No special documents, contracts or legal instruments needed, at an extra cost.)

This latter legal relationship even received a full-blown newsstory in the New York Times, noting how uncommon it might be for a blogger to meet a future mate online, particularly two from such seemingly different backgrounds...

Ms. Althouse has written extensively about her support for gay rights and has acknowledged her gay second son. Yet she and her second husband are also verrry big Scott Walker supporters... no secret there.

It will be interesting to read -- if she continues in her popular way of personalizing the local news storis -- her opinions of the long-term committed couples who wish too to avail themselves legally of the same protections for themselves and their spouses -- and their minor children still being raised in the home.

From the legal complaint comes this personal story of a bi-racial lesbian couple, written in much the same 'regular people' manner as the New York Times piece describing the legal marriage of the popular blogger and her 'commoner' male spouse. The details of the online romance sound remarkably similar too:

Charvonne Kemp, 43, and Marie Carlson, 48, have been in love and committed exclusively to each other for seven years. Charvonne and Marie met in a MySpace group for lesbians over 30. At first the group was a place for members to share dating stories and get advice. Eventually, the group decided that half the members should be mentors to the other half, giving them dating advice and support. Charvonne was assigned to be Marie’s mentor, but the two fell for each other and started dating instead.

Charvonne moved around when she was growing up, even globe-trotting a bit with her military stepfather. She was living in Los Angeles when she and Marie first started dating. Marie, who had lived in Milwaukee since the third grade, moved out to L.A. to be with Charvonne, but the two didn’t stay long. Charvonne had two sons from a prior marriage and a prior relationship, and she and Marie believed that Wisconsin was a better place to raise them than L.A. So the entire family came back to Milwaukee in early 2007.

Charvonne and Marie’s older son, Alexander, is 21 and serves in the Air Force. ... Their younger son, Christopher, is just 11 so he still lives at home with Marie, Charvonne, and Charvonne’s younger brother and sister. Marie and Charvonne were active in the PTA at Christopher’s school. They’ve both served as PTA officers, and Charvonne twice served on search committees to select a new school principal. Charvonne is currently on the Governance Council Committee at Christopher’s school.

Both sons consider Marie to be their stepmother, even if the State of Wisconsin does not.
Charvonne says their relationship works because “Marie and I have similar interests and moral codes but we’re independent enough in ourselves that we’re okay if I want to go do something or she wants to be alone for a while.” Charvonne spends time on her own cooking, sewing, quilting, gardening, and even dancing in a local Turkish dance group

Together, Charvonne, Marie, and Christopher are enthusiastic members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and enjoy medieval reenactments with the group. The whole family swims at the YMCA once a week, and they enjoy Christopher’s many school performances—including an opera performed by his class. Last year, Marie coached Christopher’s baseball team

Marie and Charvonne are domestic partners, but that is not enough. ... At bottom, though, Marie and Charvonne want very much to get married for the same reasons most couples do. “I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her,” says Charvonne of Marie. Marriage is “that final commitment to another person.… I’m old fashioned in that way.”

Marie says “I want to call Charvonne my wife and have people understand what that means. . . . I want to do it the right way and the right way is marriage.”

They have thought about going to Illinois or Massachusetts or Canada to get married, especially after the Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor,but Charvonne says, “I’m not a big fan of breaking the law.”

For Marie, if the marriage is not recognized in Wisconsin, “it doesn’t mean what it’s supposed to mean.”

Marie feels strongly that the commitment she has made to Charvonne and their sons, and that they have made to Marie, should be legally recognized. “I want to proudly walk with my family.” According to Charvonne, “Everyone else in our lives accepts us as a couple except the law.”
----------

I've omitted the focus on the legal protections and financial benefits that are detailed in the complaint to focus on the personal details here.

How does one justify benefitting a childless couple's second marriage -- with at least one well-to-do spouse who surely could pay to contract privately for these privileges -- while threatening fines and prison time for another struggling couple, with children, who in actuality are family doing the daily child-raising that these marital government benefits and recognitions are supposed to help?

Perhaps the popular Althouse blog is read by Gov. Scott Walker's staffers. I'd never tell another writer what subjects, or current events, they need to address in their work.

But here's hoping...
Ms. Althouse-Meade reads the complaint, sees a bit of herself and her husband in that Milwaukee couple, and can take effective action herself in lobbying the governor of our shared state to extend equal rights to others.

Here's that link again.

Time has come for all good people to speak out against special entitlements for special people, while discriminating against other similarly situated couples, currently working to raise tomorrow's generation. 

Will you join us, or continue to enjoy the government entitlements, all the while giving lip service to the idea of equal protection under the law and telling us a change is gonna come... tomorrow, or the day after that... in 10 years surely... it's just too soon, too soon still... be patient... you'll get your turn, in time... ?  Lip service never got the job done though, so that's why this legal action against the governor, at this time, is so important.

Make it a great Tuesday, y'all.
I know people still need time to read and think, but here's hoping we hear more in the news out there analyzing the Wisconsin lawsuit, but not skipping over the human details so well fleshed out in that complaint.

-----------------------
Everything's gonna be all right...
Everything's gonna be all right...
Everything's gonna be all right...
Everything's gonna be all right...
Everything's gonna be all right...
~Bob Marley.