Post 12: June 26, 2015

           Hey everyone, I’ve been suffering from a bit of a brain fog this week, so get ready for a post that is mostly story sharing and minimal connections.

           As we discussed a bit on the forums, Holmes details his experience on the day that same-sex marriage was legalized nationally. I was so excited when I came upon this part in the reading, because I remember this day like it was yesterday (which is saying a lot, because I have a really awful memory).

           On June 26, 2015, I had just turned 15 (wow I’m young) and I was in Lincoln, Nebraska at the UNL with my high school Thespian Troupe for the International Thespian Festival. Sidenote: Because I just outed myself as a theater nerd, I will allow myself this brag, we were attending Nationals because we had just placed first in our state with the one-act play Sing Down the Moon, on which I did backstage tech work.

           Anyway, my girlfriend at the time was also there (first long-term relationship, as much as it can be at 15 when you’re both still partially closeted). We were all loaded up on our bus, on the way to our performing location, when we check our phones and get the news. The whole bus felt like it was buzzing, there was no lasting applause or cheers, but because most of the thespians in our troupe were LGBT+ or allies, we all beamed at each other and acknowledged the relief, the pride, and the validation we felt because of this news. As Holmes puts it, “We’d won. We looked at one another and smiled” (270).

           After performing, on this day, I attended a workshop on drag makeup at the festival hosted by a gay man. The next day, some of my friends and I attended an LGBT+ panel where the group of us, as well as the panel of queer people, cheered and cried and felt an overwhelming sense of “finally”. (Sidenote again: one of the individuals on this panel identified as a lesbian, the next year that we attended the same person was on the panel and identified himself as a transgender male. Growth!!)

           The point of all of this is just to say that, in my personal experience, Holmes was right. In a time where my then-girlfriend and I were young, struggling with being accepted by our families and friends, searching for the validation that all adolescents need but is even more difficult to achieve for minority youths, the Thespian Troupe was the only place where we even felt partially accepted. So, as we attended a massive, national thespian festival during pride month (and my birthday week), surrounded by thousands of people who love like us, and as Holmes stepped into a gay bar filled with others celebrating, the Supreme Court “really kn[ew] how to create a moment” (269).

Here are some cringe-y pictures of me on this day, keep in mind I was 15 so please do not judge me too harshly: