From The Editor: Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

I’m trying not to show my age, but I recall there was a soap opera that was on CBS called Love is a Many Splendored Thing. It was your typical soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s – no need to go over all of the episodic plots and its twists, but you get the idea.

If you think about the timing of this soap opera, it was broadcasted as the LGBTQ+ Liberation Movement was under way. Yet, this soap opera never aired any LGBTQ+ subplots during its run. That would happen on later daytime shows.

On a side note, there were a few people at my high school who skipped class to watch Luke and Laura’s subplot on General Hospital. I was not one of them, but I heard the synopsis the next day – or, the following Monday – at the cafeteria.

After all these years, our love is practically normalized. For the most part, that is. You would think television viewers would be “over it” when CNN caught a shot of a male couple kissing after the ball dropped on Times Square in New York City on New Year’s Eve. No one had any problem with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen hosting the program. But, that court of public opinion called social media went insane over that other couple. The ones with the Planet Fitness hats kissing on live television.

It is to remind us that we’re still fighting for our 15 seconds to be normalized in society. For video footage or a photo to show us being our authentic selves. To dine at any given restaurant, for a couple to steal a kiss after a lovely meal. To walk down the street, hand-in-hand…

Moreover, to celebrate your nuptials at a public location. To go into business together as a couple. To make a big-ticket purchase together. To be like our neighbors, co-workers, fellow travelers…

The strides we made through Marriage Equality, adoption rights, and advances making our lives better are what we should celebrate in this issue. To be able to speak on the love that was never broadcasted decades ago. To be loved with the devotion and care we deserve with the partner or spouse we want to be with.

To celebrate that love is a many splendored thing.