Is there a happily ever after? Does anyone really make it till death does them part anymore? Can a marriage be truly perfect?
I've been married to Danny Sampson for 16 years and we're still best friends. We have three lovely children, Buy Me, Gimme and I Want.
My neighbour Natalie, who has a part-time job insulting her husband, thinks I do have the perfect marriage. Of course next to Jerry, a slug would look like a good catch. He's inarticulate, inattentive and kind of smelly.
Danny smells great. He's a genius in the kitchen, he loves his kids and he gets me. All he wants is to make me happy. Who wouldn't love a husband like that?
There hasn't been a lot of wild passion lately… okay, none. But after 16 years of marriage and three kids, what do you expect? Besides no marriage is perfect. We all have to live with compromise.
But does he have to be gay?
I should have seen it coming. Not only does he buy me flowers, he arranges them. He's a neat freak and he shares my love of show tunes. Wait a minute. He should have seen it coming.
But he didn't. Or did he? It doesn't matter. He loves me. I still love him. That's why we're determined to keep this family together.
Lots of people think this is a bad idea. Some of them are our children.
Then there's his mother. She blames me. God, I hope she's wrong.
When it comes right down to it, we're not that different from other couples. We're trying to raise our kids, get along with our neighbours and deal with the life's hard choices, like do we take our kids to see the Santa Clause parade? Or Gay Pride? And if it's Gay Pride, do we let the kids carry waterguns?
My name is Beth Porter and my husband is gay.
