By Stephen Desroches
 |
Zach Wahls
Provincetown Magazine |
The United States has certainly changed since the
children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies appeared in 1989, causing controversy.
Marriage equality exists in six states and the District of Columbia, with the
real possibility that Maine, Washington, and Maryland will join that list by
the end of the year. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed and the Supreme Court
will soon decide the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage
Act. And Barack Obama became the first president to publicly express his
support for marriage rights for same-sex couples.
The LGBT movement has certainly taken giants leaps forward
in the past several years. But that movement isn’t driven by those within the
walls of the Capital, the Supreme Court, or the White House. It gets its energy
from people like Zach Wahls, who rocketed to fame when a video of him
addressing the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in favor of marriage equality and
in defense of his family went viral on YouTube with almost 17 million hits as
of July 19. That exposure led him to appearances on The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, and
Chelsea Lately, as well as a new book, My Two Moms: Lessons of Love,
Strength, and What Makes a Family.
“Roller
coaster is a phrase I’ve been using a lot lately,” says Wahls, who lives in
Iowa City with his two mothers and sister. “It’s been kind of scary. Kind of
wild.”
Wahls was
a 19-year-old student at the University of Iowa when he spoke before the House
Judiciary Committee, who was preparing to vote on an initiative with the
ultimate goal of amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage,
effectively overturning the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous decision that made
it legal in 2009. While the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives
ultimately voted to pass the anti-gay resolution, the Democrats in the state
senate blocked it. But Wahls came out of the issue with rock-star appeal and a
platform to advocate for equality for gays and lesbians.
