Brave New World

The New York Times Magazine has an article about young gay men getting married in Massachusetts and even gay divorce.

What a brave new world we live in. When I knew I was gay, I figured marriage was something that I gave up with the closet door.

I'm still not sure that I'm interested in marriage. I really think that I should find the guy before getting married, you know?

But the twenty-somethings hitting the post-college pavement have no such qualms. Many of them have the same expectations of their straight peers - marriage, kids, retirement together. Some do not.

Many want engagement parties and all the things that come with making the commitment. When gay marriage turns to gay divorce, the pain and feeling of failure is the same as that felt by their straight counterparts, too. Perhaps even more guilt comes with it as marriage is a recently won right still in only one state.

As the article points out, men of my age group tended to reject the heterosexual model of marriage. Was it a response to the rejection we felt from heterosexual society or were we charting new territory? Who knows?

We oldsters tend to require emotional fidelity more than sexual fidelity. The greedy youth want both. Are they setting themselves up for disappointment or are they onto something that we missed?

We were cynical. Now the young can be optimistic. I guess that is progress. Maybe it is even a good thing.