Date: May 26, 2066
Log Entry: MMMCCLI
Well, it has been 50 years since Texas Representative Louie Gohmert's famous "Modern-Day Noah" speech. I decided to watch the old clip and, boy oh boy, is it quaint:
It is almost comical to listen to this speech today, considering how off-the-mark Gohmert was about a gay space colony. He scoffed at the idea of sending same-sex couples into space because he believed that this was no way to "save humankind for posterity." But my comrades and I are living proof that such a colony can thrive and flourish. Did anyone take this man seriously when he made this speech? He thought we gays were attacking "natural law" and that humans "don't have much longer to go" if we promoted LGBT people. Ha ha ha!
Gohmert asked "if you could decide what 40 people you put on the spacecraft that would save humanity, how many of those would be same-sex couples?" Less than a year after he made those remarks, a plan was hatched to send exactly 40 gay people into space to put his hypothesis to the test. Who would have known that it would be a necessity?! When the United States Civil War II broke out and international chaos ensued, threats of nuclear annihilation caused us to speed up our plan. The 40 of us were launched into space a year earlier than we had original scheduled. Being resourceful and focused, we managed to found the first space colony on Mars.
The 40 of us had been chosen carefully. There were 10 gay couples and 10 lesbian couples. Almost all of the colonists were in their twenties. [My husband and I were 24 and 22 at the time.] We were all recently married. None of us had children.
Gohmert had assumed that we would die out. He was wrong. Upon arriving on Mars, we made a plan to perpetuate the human race in case the battles down on Earth caused human extinction. Initially, ten of the women volunteered to carry children. Gohmert thought we could not do this but, in fact, there are ways gay people can conceive children. Several assisted reproductive technologies were used. Some of the gay men physically coupled with the lesbians. We do not have data on how all the children were conceived because it was decided that these were private choices with no necessity to share information. Only the medical personnel amongst us knows how many women chose in vitro fertilization, for instance. These professionals have vowed to maintain patient confidentiality.
Within no time, our little colony was bustling with babies! It was fun, exhausting, joyful (although we were saddened by reports of widespread misery down on Earth). We had decided to take on parental responsibilities as a group because we were all invested in the future of our species. Our colony grew quickly as more babies arrived in the next few years.
Gohmert's theory that gay people cannot conceive or successfully raise children was quickly debunked. His concerns about the religious ramifications of our experiment also proved to be way off-base.
Many of the initial colonists had no religious affiliations. Having been burned and maligned by religious fanatics on Earth, they steered clear of religion to avoid any further harm. However, some of the colonists did retain their faiths. A decision was made to keep religion private. Organized religion was effectively eliminated. Our religious comrades focused on the peaceful and beautiful messages of their faiths and eschewed prejudices that had been layered on through organized religion. Over time, some of the non-practicing colonists were newly attracted to religion. Many of the children, as they grew, aligned themselves with one faith or another. There are no statistics for this because religion is not promoted publically. But, removing judgment from the equation made religion more inviting to more people.
Of course, we are not perfect. Squabbles bubble up here and there. But, mostly, we live peaceably and happily as a community. We raise our children to be respectful of others, private in their religious and sexual practices, and devoid of prejudice. My husband and I are in our seventies now, and we have grandchildren and great-grandchildren! There are no statistics about how many of the Martian-born children are heterosexual and how many are homosexual because we respect each other's privacy.
When the Earth's troubles began to simmer down about 20 years ago, the Martian inhabitants were given the option to return. Not one of the original colonists chose to go back. Many of the offspring, however, made the journey to Earth to explore new options. Every one of them returned to Mars within six months. Appalled by the dominant hatred and discord that they experienced on so many levels, they chose to return to a place where they were valued for their contributions and not judged by their physical traits or personal choices.
Gohmert is long gone. It is too bad that he never lived to see his Modern-Day Noah / Gay Space Colony in action. He believed and promoted misguided messages. We are left to wonder if, in death, he ever saw the light.