Regarding the second aside: I’ve remembered that very interesting conversation, too. And as I said then, I love it that we, and the others who were a part of it, can have honest and respectful conversations, even when we’re coming from near if not total polar opposite political perspectives.

Saying, as I did, that I shouldn’t have to make the case for equality wasn’t a complaint, but a statement of what I think “equal rights,” “equal protection,” or more broadly “human rights,” are suppose to be about. But of course, that’s the ideal, not the reality, and the case for actual equal rights is one that has needed to be made by people from and for all kinds of communities. We’ll have to keep on doing that, including, though by no means limited to, through the courts.

Stating that I shouldn’t have to prove that I deserve equal rights doesn’t mean I don’t know, in fact, that I have to do just that, over and over. I’ve been doing it for 30+ years, and like many other people, doing it not just for LGBT rights.

Living in a very imperfect world, and more specifically, an imperfect nation with imperfect laws and governments, the need to keep on working for equality is the reality. I still don’t think I should have to do that — a philosophical, ethical, spiritual perspective of a “fair” and “just” world. But I do, and at least for me, the need to keep on fighting / working provides me with more motivation and energy.

Hey, I’m ready for another round of good conversation and brews, my ultra conservative gay man friend .