I figured I’d preserve this somewhere…
Last night on the news, I saw that Multnomah County leadership has decided that as of 9:00 AM today, they would begin issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples. This, in response to the San Francisco mayor marrying same-sex couples (was it last week? I’ll have to dig up a link).
I work for Multnomah County, in their Information Services department. I noticed the crowds of people and news crews outside the Multnomah Building on my way in to work (my office is downtown).
Well, after I got in, my boss called me. The computer support folk that work in the Multnomah Building hadn’t come in yet, and due to the crowds, management wanted to set up some kind of “command post” — probably including computers ‘n’ such. So my boss wanted to know if I was available to get over to the Multnomah Building to help out.
No big deal; a fairly normal request. However, it was his off-hand comment that caught my attention. After I had mentioned the large number of people I had seen in front of the building, he said:
“What’s wrong with those people? Don’t they have jobs to get to? Oh, well, probably making a statement or something.”
Not entirely sensitive, and not entirely insensitive… but annoying. My first reaction (which, unfortunately I did not voice) was to think that “those people” probably consider their personal lives a bit more important than simply working, and making this particular statement, at this particular time in our country’s history, to be particularly important.