About 18 years ago I went to a protest in Los Angeles. The protest was to lift the ban on gays serving in the military (Before DADT thats what we called it). At that rally I got a black arm band with "Lift the Ban" written on it. I told the person I was with that I was going to keep the armband until gays could serve openly in the military.

After today's vote, I went to throw it away. Yeah, I know the ban has not been technically lifted, but I figured it was close enough. I walked over and picked up the armband, looked at it and had a rush of emotions. I remembered the protest where I first got and wore the arm band as well as well as two other protests where I wore it. I remembered frustrating battles that seemed to never end. I then realized that the fucking armband had been with me for 18 years and that I had formed an emotional attachment to the fucking thing.

After 18 years of wanting to throw the fucking thing away, suddenly I was considering keeping it "for the memories". WTF? Dismissing that, I started thinking of keeping it until Obama had signed the bill and having some big ceremony as I got rid of it. Again, WTF?

The armband is now in the trash where it and DADT belong.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2010 04:01PM by MJ.