Do You See Politics Here?

See this picture here? The one with the little girl in front of a flag? Well, if you think it’s about politics, think again. It’s hanging in front of my house, so I should get to say what it means. And to me, it’s not about politics. It’s about love.

If I can be flip for a moment, this flag speaks more to my packrat tendencies than to politics. I recently found it tucked in an old ice chest, one my mom passed along to me in the 1980s. It was the first antique she ever bought, and I’ve kept it. Seems I’m somewhat of a packrat—one with a mild compulsion to save things. Just in case I need them. Someday.

Being a packrat gets a bad rap. Sure, I have clothes I purchased during the last millennium. And a tub of old calendars dating back to 1981. But, hey, they contain crucial information, like phone numbers, work meeting notes, and dates with my OB/GYN. Granted, my youngest child will turn thirty-five in May. Still, I’ve saved those old calendars. In case I need them. Someday.

Which brings me back to the flag, the one in the picture with the little girl standing in front of it, forming a heart with her hands in honor of Valentine’s Day. I purchased that flag in late summer 1993. I know the date for a fact because I wrote an op-ed column about why I bought and hung that flag outside our house. (Packrat that I am, I saved that column, which ran in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday, October 11, 1993.)

Okay, I confess, this paragraph does get political, but only because my county’s policymakers took us there. In 1993, they passed a resolution, which stated in part:  “…lifestyles advocated by the gay community should not be endorsed by government policy makers, because they are incompatible with the standards to which this community subscribes; and that gay lifestyle units are directly contrary to state law.”

In response, I bought a rainbow flag. I flew it to make a personal statement against that resolution because, to me, it got into who should love whom, which should not be a political issue or a government matter.

It’s been over thirty years since I first flew that flag. The county’s “anti-gay” resolution has long been rescinded, my flag tucked away out of sight. But not out of mind.

Funny how packrats operate. I had to keep that flag. In case I needed it. Again. Someday.

Who knew that thirty-two years later, some people would need to be reminded that love is love? Who knew that someday would be now?