I think Lena Dunham is amazing. In this article (found in the New Yorker (at http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-bride-in-her-head), Ms. Dunham talks about the future of marriage for straight people like herself, now that the excuse of waiting for LGBT folks to be able to marry is no longer one she can use.
She is funny and pithy. Check it out:
Three years ago, when I was twenty-five, I met a bespectacled musician named Jack. He had a passion for John Hughes movies and driving on the Jersey Turnpike.
His belief in, and insistence on, true equality for L.G.B.T.Q. citizens was no small reason why I fell in love with him, and, early in our relationship, I watched him struggle with the decision of whether or not to perform at a straight couple’s wedding.
He discussed the matter at length with queer friends, concerned that it might be a form of betrayal (ultimately, he was given their blessing, though he seemed fairly tortured about it anyhow). The struggle was real and raw for Jack, and so it somehow became understood, between us, that we wouldn’t even consider marrying until every American had the same right.
And I said it proudly whenever I had the chance, with the grandiosity and intimations of sacrifice you hear from certain lesser vegans.
She closes with this paragraph, honestly admitting that:
… it turns out that what I was waiting for was not the chance to marry but the chance to think about marriage on an even playing field, in a world where its relevance is a little harder to question and its essence a little harder to reject.
I like living in that uncertainty while other people celebrate their hard-won right to have just what they grew up dreaming of, with no caveats. I like admitting that my feminism and my femininity are not fully formed or in perfect harmony. I like being a guest, for now.
Brava, Ms. Dunham. Brava!