Loving Day hit me different this year
I went to a little Loving Day meetup in D.C. last night and honestly I was way more emotional than I expected. My girlfriend is Black and I'm Mexican, and we've had the usual random stares and awkward comments, but hearing people talk about Loving v. Virginia made me realize how recent all of this really is. Like, my grandma is still alive and there was a time when a marriage like ours would've been illegal in a bunch of states. Wild.
We met on Hinge last year and at first I thought we’d just be another cute dating app story, but the more serious we got, the more I started thinking about family history, law, all of it. My dad was cool, her mom took a little longer, and now everybody acts like it was obvious we'd end up together. Did anyone else do anything for Loving Day? Or have family stories about interracial marriage that stuck with you?
Mar 27
148
2 repliesC
connor odeaVIPADMINI feel this. My husband is white and I’m Korean American, and my aunt still talks about how her side of the family barely accepted her marriage in the early 90s. Not even that long ago. We live in Atlanta now and people are pretty chill most of the time, but the history stuff still gets me because it’s so close. Loving Day always makes me think about how much work ordinary couples had to do just to exist.
Also, the Hinge part made me smile because same here. Meeting people online can feel so random, but then you realize it turns into a real family story. That’s kind of beautiful, honestly.
J
Jasmine K.My parents are an interracial couple and they always kind of downplayed the history when I was younger, like they didn’t want me growing up scared. But now I’m 32 and married too, and I think about it differently. I’m in New Orleans, and there are still older folks who remember when mixed couples got side-eye just for holding hands. It’s not ancient history at all.
What gets me on Loving Day is how easy it is to forget the legal part if you only look at your own life. Like yeah, we’ve come a long way, but depending on where you are and who’s around, it can still feel heavy. Glad you went to the meetup though. More people should.
Sign in to reply to this thread.