It's election season here. Streets are lined with red, white and blue signs pushing various candidates and various positions on the issues. Several neighbors have large lawn signs letting the rest of us know where they stand.
There is a tan house with white trim that sits a fair walk down the road from me. It's close enough to me (and on a busy enough street) that I pass it nearly every day, but it's far enough from my house, that I've never had the chance to meet the folks who live there. I know them only from the parts of their life that face the road. I know their lawn is neatly kept and the house is well maintained. I know they have a child, because there is a Razor scooter next to the garage. I know the garage is bursting with clutter, because the door doesn't shut all the way, and some of the detritus creeps out onto the driveway in a way that's not in keeping with the rest of the exterior. I know that this year they are voting McCain/Palin. And I know that in a previous election they wanted to make sure that gay people wouldn't be able to marry in our state.
Each time I pass their house, ever since that previous election when they supported a ballot measure banning gay marriage, I think about another house on my street. It's across the street from me and a little down the road, close enough that I have a nodding acquaintance with the occupants. They're an attractive couple, with a young child and a dog. I see them out together some evenings pushing the stroller and walking the dog. And they're lesbians.
I always wonder what the people in the tan house think of that family. What does being against gay marriage mean to them? Is it just the idea of same sex couples marrying that they have a problem with or is it gayness itself? Do they know the lesbian couple? Have they seen them out walking the dog too?
And I wonder how that family feels when they pass that house. They've been living here as long as we have and travel the same roads out of the neighborhood to work and grocery shopping. They must have seen the sign when it was up. Did they feel the way I felt? Because even though I'm married to a man, I felt assaulted by that sign. I felt hated, even if that wasn't the intention. I wondered if people had yard signs like that around the time I was born, when as a white woman, my marriage to my black husband would have been illegal.
I'm curious about the family in the tan house with their tidy lawn and messy garage. But I hardly feel comfortable walking up to the door and saying, "Remember that sign you had on your lawn years ago? It's still bugging me. Who are you and what are you really like?"
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