The Maryland Senate's Marriage Equality Bill Hearing: Part 1

The Background Post

I heard a discussion on NPR recently about stay at home moms and how their husbands and children don't respect them. I'd like to make it clear that I'm mentioning this not because I welcome anyone else's opinion on the matter, in fact I don't, but because it bothered me a great deal. I asked both Ash and Noah repeatedly if they respect me. They each reassured me. Ash told me how important the things I do are and Noah laughed in my face.

I started to think about what Noah will think about the time I've been home with him and the time I will hopefully be home with him in the future whether that is 6 more months or longer, and I wondered if he would realize that this time raising him has also allowed me to explore my own passions -political, writing and otherwise- in a way that I didn't or couldn't explore them when I was bogged down with a long, unfulfilling work week and commute.

I love being home with Noah because I'm one of those people that wanted to be here to do this for Noah, for our family and for me.

I hope that when Noah thinks about the time I had to be home with him, he will think about how much I taught him about the importance of fighting for what you believe in and for sticking up for what is right.

I have taken Noah on field trips to Frederick Douglass's house for black history month, the Lincoln Memorial around MLK's birthday and the White House in honor of the National Transgender Day of Remembrance.

I have taken him to lobby our legislators for marriage equality and gender identity protection.

Yesterday, my mom flew in from Chicago to babysit Noah so I could attend a very important Senate Hearing on the Marriage Equality Bill that has a good chance of passing in Maryland during this legislative season.

I wanted to testify but because I wasn't sure about my childcare options I didn't rsvp to speak ahead of time. I wanted to go on the record so some day when Noah reads about the year that LGBT folks finally received equal rights in Maryland, he'd know his mom was there and she fought for it too. 43 or 44 years ago there were people that spoke out for families like ours to have the right to marry and be a family in Maryland, and I thank God for those people every time I pick Noah up and kiss or cuddle him in the middle of the night.