During the campaign for California's Proposition 22 to ban gay marriages, my dear friend and former roommate, Clay Whitmer, and his best friend, Stuart Matis, both committed suicide. The hateful lobbying for this proposition caused them great pain in the weeks before they took their own lives.

On Thursday morning, I was elated to hear that the mostly Republican-appointed justices had ruled that the ban on gay marriages was unconstitutional. After my initial euphoria, I decided to write a tribute and this is the working copy.



In re MARRIAGE CASES
California Supreme Court
5/15/08

-- For Clay and Stuart. Both of them left this life too soon
because they just could not take the hate anymore.


I would have
called Clay
right away.
He would have
cried with relief
shouted with joy
blurted out a catty
comment or two.
Then, he would have
called Stuart to celebrate.

Clay hasn't had
a phone number for
nearly eight years.

He left his number
and his pain behind
when he bought a gun,
and rode the city bus to
The Presidio.

I imagine he
found just the
right spot before
breathing one last
huge sigh of relief
one last blink before
he ended the pain
in a flash of light.

Sometimes,
good news
comes too late
making victory
bittersweet.

When will the bricks
of judgment cease to fall
on all the innocent souls?