Arizona Backs Down After Our Visit

Last Friday, Deb and I drove to Tucson to see our youngest daughter. It was our first visit to the Grand Canyon state in more than a year. Much like the rough and rugged terrain we traversed the politics of this final member of the continental forty-eight hasn’t undergone any noticeable change. Our trip was not at all about politics, but rather a matter of deeply held family values.

The gallows outside the Tombstone courthouse
remind gays and straight alike that
Arizona means business.

We were surprised to find our extremely reliable daughter was not at home when we arrived. To her credit we were a half hour earlier than our previously estimated time of arrival—but estimates are just that. So, when Deb called Courtney and found she was at the nearby Chili’s, we opted to join her and her roommate and a fellow case manager for an extended happy hour. While we discussed mental health issues, since all three of these young Arizonans worked in the field, we consumed another round of beer, a large platter of chips and salsa, some warm pretzels and a 2 for $20 special. At the time, we had no idea we were at the center of the controversy the governor of their state was facing. Although I have no idea what the religious values of the Chili’s ownership or corporation might be, the young man who works with our daughter and kept me laughing from the moment I sat down made it quite clear he has no romantic interest in our daughter because “she has a vagina.”

Saturday evening, a co-worker of Courtney’s roommate brought beer and a chocolate cream pie to share while we watched the Wildcats of Arizona devour the Buffalo of Colorado on the basketball court in Boulder. She also shared pictures of a woman she would like to become romantically involved with, if she could get her away from the debilitating relationship she has with her current girlfriend. When the game on TV was clearly over, she joined the rest of us straight folk for some raucous board games.  As far as I could tell her sexual orientation influenced my board game skills in about the same dramatic fashion as it imposed itself on my religious liberty.

The Earp Brothers, Doc Holiday and Big Nose Kate
get ready to reenact the shootout at the O.K. Corral.
Was one of them gay?

Sunday, my wife and daughter sated my appetite for visiting historical places by accompanying me to Tombstone. Arriving a little after noon, we watched a nineteenth century fashion shoe with a lot of petticoats, carpet bag purses, parasols and boots in the middle of the main street. We were fortunate to meet a man coming out of a saloon who lives a short distance from the courthouse. He guided us through a maze of construction.

At the courthouse, we toured the building and its display of guns, pocket watches and other artifacts. Before going outside to the gallows, we looked at the illustrations and read the account of the thirty seconds that made Tombstone famous. Controversy surrounds the shootout at the O.K. Corral, where Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holiday killed Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers. The truth may be a far cry from what I learned growing up watching Hugh O’Brian play the supposedly heroic lawman in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp from 1955 to 1961, but the tale definitely impacted the economics of this city and quite possibly the state, to say nothing of Hollywood.

Courtney and I get ready to catch the last stagecoach
out of town.

Monday, as we drove home, we stopped in Scottsdale, outside of Phoenix, and had lunch with my cousin at Chompies, a New York style delicatessen. Although Stuart is the only relative to run for public office, as far as I know, our discussion centered on our children, and the controversial bill sitting on the governor’s desk never came up. As I said, this trip was about family values, not politics.

Yesterday, Governor Brewer to avoid economic disaster vetoed the bill that would have allowed discrimination against gays in the name of religious liberty.