After the education workshop ended at 4:00PM this afternoon, I decided to explore Milwaukee briefly, as I'm leaving tomorrow midday. My boyfriend kept pressing me to seek out the Milwaukee Art Museum - we always go to the art museums. I don't know why, really. I think it has something to do with both of us being nerds.
But, the Milwaukee Art Museum is in the middle of a park along Lake Michigan. In a word: breathtaking. Unfortunately, all museums in Milwaukee appear to close at 5:00PM on Fridays, leaving me to think it would be better to explore the interior during a brief two-hour window I have tomorrow morning. Instead, I wandered the Lake Michigan waterfront. As I walked, I chuckled at a half-joking suggestion Zach had made prior to this trip: that I seek out the Milwaukee "gay district," or some sort of gay-oriented establishment, to visit during my free time.
"Like I've ever fit in with gay people," I retorted, with just a hint of venom. After all, aside from the whole man-attracted-to-other-men thing, gay culture and I rejected one another years ago. I am too nerdy, and they hate nerds.
Hence my horror when I stumbled on the 2007 Milwaukee PrideFest. All the rainbow flags leading up to it apparently didn't register as a "clue" to this Velma. But, luckily, a $15 entry fee kept me from entering, and instead sent me on a foot tour of downtown Milwaukee, ending at an Irish pub for dinner and drinks and a flirtatious sorority blonde-haired waitress (she cut the act when she heard me grumble, "God, I miss my boyfriend!" after the unfortunate shoulder pat).
But, despite the waitress, I can't help but love this city. It's very midwestern, and therefore very much everything-Seattle-lacks in my book. I find myself loving it for the same reason I love another, much larger, midwestern city: Chicago. Both Zach and I have expressed a desire to move to Chicago someday. We could both be closer to family, and Zach has a good friend in the city. Milwaukee seems as attractive a choice, or perhaps moreso... particularly since more mid-sized cities seem to suit me better.
But Milwaukee, along with every other Wisconsin city, has to work a bit harder to win me over, since the people of Wisconson (unlike the people of Illinois) sought fit to kick me in the balls, and add these words to their constitution:
"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."
On the phone earlier, as I was watching the wings of the Milwaukee Art Museum close at 5:00PM, Zach and I had our usual ideological disagreement on this issue - with my idealism sparring briefly with his pragmatism. Zach argued, rightly so, that even though this amendment would bar even the most basal of domestic partnership registrations (similar to the measure passed recently in our own state), legal contracts and carefully-crafted wills could be used instead.
But, in my mind, I can't get over the fact that 59% of Wisconsin voters - 59%! - chose not only to outlaw same-sex marriage, but also actively chose language meant to restrict any hope of even the most basal of domestic partnership rights. Do the people of Wisconsin really see something wrong with Zach visiting me in the hospital? Really? Are these basal rights that much of a threat to their marriages? Unfortunately, I tend to go the hospital every now and then, and I'd like to count on Zach's visitation rights to get me through my spinal taps. Until he dumps me for having too many spinal taps, that is.
Still, as a result, Wisconsin has to work a little harder than Illinois to gain my trust. I don't take an ideological kick in the pants too well.
Posted by James at June 8, 2007 09:07 PM