Fargo, North Dakota, 10.08 am. Our reader writes:
I’ve been meaning to send you a version of this view for awhile now. It’s looking south from the second-floor windows of the studio where I have been a stained glass apprentice for about three years now. (We all check in from work, don’t we?) The building in the foreground is the old Christ Scientist Church, now a recovery worship congregation. Behind that is First United Methodist Fargo.
My husband’s family is from Fargo, which brought us to the area. We lived in Fargo for about two years, but once marriage equality came to Minnesota, we made the move 100 yards across the Red River of the North to Moorhead, MN, where we were legally married at the first possible minute with 17 other same-sex couples in a midnight ceremony at the Clay County Courthouse on August 1st, 2013. Our moms were our witnesses on our marriage certificate.
My husband and I bounced around the country together in our 20s. Big cities. It was fun. But now we’re in our 30s and “small town” life is a little more fulfilling. Fargo-Moorhead has been good to us. The arts community, the faith community, the business world … I don’t think we would have felt so comfortable in this town 10 years ago. I can’t believe how far we’ve come in such a short period of time; gay married folk are now mundane homeowners on the Northern Plains. Unbelievable.
I first started reading your blog daily in 2007, for Obama. I was an undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago when I voted for him the first time for Senate in 2004. I loved him then and I still love him. History will judge him well. Your posts have given Chad and me something to talk about, sometimes argue over, for almost eight years now. I’m really going to miss you. We will miss you. (Plus I grew up Catholic too, and our sentiments regarding “gay culture” are so similar, and GAH!, we are such good friends … tears …)
Nevertheless, I get the decision you made. It makes sense to me. I love your blog, but daily events are SO EXHAUSTING. Especially lately. I’ve taken a few breaks from it all recently myself. You should too.
The Dish 