LESBIAN MARRIAGE

There have been many articles and separate shɔré statements in both THE LADDER and ONE Magazine on the "problem" of homosexual marriage. I do not believo

it need be a "problem". Granted, overy caso of two people falling in love and deciding to live together creates problems. However, I firmly believe, and I will attempt to prove, that these problems are almost always overcome if the people involved really are in love. My plea is directed to all of you who feel you cannot find a way to live with the person you lovo. You can---and the concessions you have to make are small.

In September my friend and I will have been living together six years, and a few months after that wo oolebrate what we consider to be our seventh anniversary. We are very happy, both of us, and we both feel that nothing, except of course death, will separate us. Wo did not meet under a rose bush and drift away into uncomplicated bliss together.

But that

When wo met, I was in my late teens and my partner was 16 years older. Problem number one: age difference. So far it has apparently failed to hurt us. was just the beginning. My partner was totally unaware of her Lesbianism; I was completely aware. While I was legally free, my friend was married (unhappily) and in a profession where even a touch of scandal means completo and final ruin. My mother was aware of my Lesbianism while my friend's parents probably never had heard tho word. Sounds pretty hopeless, doesn't it? We were in love and tied hand and foot.

Today my friend and I are in the same profession; in fact, wo are in the same system. Her parents accept me as a permanent part of the family, oven introduce me as a second daughter. (It wasn't always like this.) Of course, my friend has been divorced many years now. A good note is that her former husband has remarried, and happily.

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