West, Where I Belong

It's never been a secret that Utah wasn't my first choice of places to call home. Over the two decades I was a Californian, I used to joke that the best part of Utah was that I only had to visit.

Now I've been here for 5 1/2 years, I've grown more accustomed to it, but still dream of the day when home means somewhere beyond a square on the map with the upper right hand corner missing.

Don't get me wrong, there are many, many great advantages about living in Utah, like the natural beauty and the seasons.

 

And I'm grateful to be with my extended family, and for the friends I've made.

But some days, the only view of Utah I want is from my rear view mirror. Today is one of those days. 

Today the state to which I pay taxes and which counts me among its citizens, is spending a couple million of those tax dollars in front of a Federal Court in Denver trying to defend the notion that Utah has a vested interest in limiting marriage to one man and one woman. One of the arguments the state's Attorney General made today: same-gender marriage will create more "dead beat" dads.

Back home the AG's office has filed for an "emergency extraordinary relief" appeal to the state Supreme Court to overturn another judge's ruling forcing the Department of Vital Statistic to change the birth certificate of a child to reflect she has two legal mothers, and the state wants the court to halt any additional same-gender parent adoptions, and potentially invalidate any others that have occurred (this does not have any bearing on my kids - adopted in California).

And if that's not enough, today Murray City slaughtered three beautiful trees in my parkway because they posed a threat to the sidewalk.  We can replace the trees for $45 each.

I guess, the positive side is that I have a view out of my window of the canal across the street and the snow-topped Oquirrh Mountains (pronounced Oaker) in the west. West, where California is. West, where San Francisco and Los Angeles are. West, where marriage equality stands and families are put together, not torn apart.  West, where I belong.