I look out in the morning at the mountains. I look out in the evening at the string of lights around the deck off the bedroom, the attractive furniture and the amazing blue color over the mountains. I marvel daily that I have legal rights as a couple and that we are respected, legally, here in Oregon.
I mention my mate to people who celebrate us and understand we are as much of a couple as anyone else. We sit down and work out bills, housing, vacation plans, feel pain, love and struggles and Leigh makes me realize that I can be proud to be who I am. She has a ferocious protection toward our family as a unit to be just as valued as any other.
I love her determination, her dedication to us as a family and our times where Tigger, our cat and buddy, joins us to look out over all that we worked to gain. We dream, feel, hope and work toward a full life together. Alaska was not nearly as accepting or welcoming to us as a "real" couple. I nearly returned to Oregon acting and feeling somewhat homophobic. I was afraid to be out, in a real way, in that I did not feel safe in Alaska with that. I have a home in Michigan, a state I love, but one in which I have no legal rights as a gay couple. I own a home and deserve all of the same benefits of any other home owner, however, my mate could be barred from a hospital room there if I became ill and really needed her there. That's really inexcusable. Really.
So, I will gladly live in Oregon, though I miss my home state a great deal. I will proudly announce that I'm legally joined to another human being, an amazing human being. I will accept her compassionate love and grace. So, beauty. Beauty means to me feeling safe to love, looking around at fantastic surroundings, hearing great music, smelling good food cooking, tasting life fully and touching the people and the things that I love.
