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| Elenor Heyborne and Marina Gomberg apply for a marriage license on Dec. 20. Photo by Jim Urquhart |
‘Tis the week before
Christmas, and all through the state,
Wedding bells are ringing for
those who can’t wait.
For a window was opened, and
soon it might close
If cold-hearted grinches get
what they propose:
A stay on the order that
lifted the ban;
And marriages only for a
woman and man.
But if ever there was a time
and a place
For a state to perform an
abrupt about face,
It’s here in a state that
was founded by men
Who lived not with just one,
but many women;
And here in a place, where
our leaders do strive
To keep government rules out
of all of our lives;
And here in a world where so
many do trust,
That freedom means fairness
for ev’ry one of us;
And here in a place with a
great history
Of changing our laws when
it’s clear it needs be.
For instance, that time in
Nineteen-Thirty-Three,
When we were the deciding
state to decree,
Prohibition should end in
the nation at large,
Even though most the people
who were then in charge,
Partook of no liquor, not
one single drop.
Repeal did not change that,
did not make it stop.
And then there was the year
Eighteen-Ninety-Six
We elected a woman into the
mix
Of Utah’s state senate; the
first woman to be
Serving such a role in the
land of the free.
Yes, Utah has had its fair
share of regrets,
Banning blacks from the priesthood
was bad as it gets.
It wasn’t until
Nineteen-Seventy-Eight,
That the Mormons would fix
that awful mistake.
And it wasn’t until just
this very year,
The church’s leaders made it
perfectly clear,
There was no good reason for
the racial ban.
It wasn’t God’s will but the
fault of a man,
Who let a few passages from
the Good Book
Influence him to blatantly
overlook
The teachings of someone who
many now say
Was our Lord and Savior,
born on Christmas day.
Is it hard to think that today
we might have
A law on our books every bit
as bad,
Begun with the best of
intentions and yet
Will someday be something
we’d like to forget?
With this all in mind is it
too much to ask,
For one brave and audacious
holiday task?
Dear Governor Herbert,
please look in your heart,
And think about what our
state might just impart,
Upon our great nation if
you’d just command
That Utah won’t be where
hate makes its last stand.
You don’t have to change any
deep-held beliefs
About what a good marriage
really should be.
Just let us all have the
same rights you enjoy.
To marry our partners, to
share all our joy,
Our betters and worses, our
deaths to us part.
And simply allow this next New
Year to start
With love and compassion,
instead of a fight.
A Merry Christmas for all, when we all Choose
the Right.
