I’ve spent a lot of time in airports in the last few months, and I’ve noticed wonderful phenomena: LGBT couples holding hands.
This comes, of course, on the heels of the debate and ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on marriage equality. That landmark ruling gave LGBT couples a feeling of pride in themselves and their emotions, which in times past, many couples would check when they left the front doors of their homes.
At airports and train stations, you’ll often see heterosexual couples walking arm in arm or, when picking up their partner, giving a little peck (or more). But so many LGBT couples held that natural emotion back, fearing negative responses from passersby.
But, now with their relationships legitimized by the nation’s top court, couples seem to be feeling like they have the same opportunity to act on those emotions, which others have felt free to do all along.
On a recent trip that took me to various cities in a two-week period, it became very apparent that this trend was also taking hold on city streets as well. Every other day or so I’d notice a couple holding hands or showing some form of affection toward one another, especially in areas that had gay businesses.
What I liked about this was that, while these weren’t political statements, they still had political overtones; non-LGBT people witnessing this innocent sharing of emotions had to take note and think about what it meant. In our community, we’ve always understood that equality is best achieved through education.
Somehow I believe that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the coming months and years.
A little hand-holding and a little kiss really can change the world.