Maybe I Do And Maybe I Don't {long read...some of it painful}

[xchrom]

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-08-10/news/kevin-beauchamp-howard-orlick-maybe-i-do-and-maybe-i-dont/

Kevin Beauchamp, 49, and Howard Orlick, 50, are both legally blind. Kevin is thin and wiry; his vision loss is degener- ative, and eventually he'll go completely blind. For now, he sees a little through one eye, making out shapes when there is enough contrast. With the aid of adaptive software, he's able to read modified text when he's not too tired.

Howard is broad and muscular. Because of a genetic condition, he sees nothing in daylight. The sun's light acts on him like snow blindness. But at night, he has some vision. During the day, Kevin's dwindling vision is enough for him to get by with a cane. But at night, it's Howard who guides Kevin as they walk together.

For nine years, they've been together, relying on each other to get down the street and up steps and around corners, so that they could do what had been a major part of their forties—protesting for the right of gay couples to marry.

They carried a banner together in the National Equality March in D.C. (Howard admits that he worried about falling in a manhole.) And Kevin was arrested last March while participating in a demonstration that shut down the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street at rush hour, even though police didn't seem interested in cuffing a blind man carrying a white cane.

[Glorfindel]

1. Recommended

Thanks for posting this. :hi:

[DirkGently]

2. People taking care of people. Always a good story.

[Rowdyboy]

3. Love is awesomely powerful.....

May all of their lives be blessed.

And how cool would it be to have Lt Dan Choi as your "maid of honor"