Rick glanced down at his phone after he picked up his bag from the passenger seat. It was on low battery. Again. Apparently charging it overnight did damage the battery.
The front door clicked in his hand as he locked it from the inside. Whenever he got a free second, it seemed like there was another thing to fit.
He walked into their room to find Drew. His husband was on his side, turned away from him. It was the middle of the afternoon and the door knob would have to wait until later. He took off his shoes, plugged in his phone and entered his password so he could scroll through his news feed while he waited for Drew to wake up.
He was in the middle of an article he only partially understood about the raisin industry in the US when Drew leaned into him.
"You're home early." He murmured.
"The other proctors didn't show up so we had to reschedule the drill." Rick explained, kissing Drew before he settled his head on his shoulder.
"Lucky me." Drew murmured again.
"The raisin industry is a 500 million dollar industry in the US." Rick said, reaching the tail end of the article.
"I was unaware." Drew said, clearly not paying a lot of attention. They laid there for awhile, Rick skimming an article about the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas.
Eventually, Rick hit an article with a disturbing headline.
"Did you know Pidgeon v. Turner was back in session?" He asked Drew, mild alarm in his voice.
There was a second of lag time but Rick felt Drew wake up more and pull himself upright in reaction.
"What's the verdict?" he asked.
Rick handed Drew the phone, the headline still blared across the little screen.
"Same Sex Couples Don't Get the Same Marriage Benefits as Heterosexuals in Texas."
"So not good." Drew summarized, scrolling past the ad to find the meat of the article.
"Same-sex couples can get married in Texas, but they won't have the same rights that heterosexual couples do….What an incredible early Christmas present from the U. S. Supreme Court… "
"They just had to bring Christmas into this, didn't they?" Rick asked, taking the phone back so the charging cord wasn't stretched too far. Drew was quiet as he reached under the edge of their bed and retrieved his laptop.
"I didn't like it when they call it same sex couples. Straight people are just couples, but gay people are same sex couples. Anything we say is undermined by the fact that everyone is thinking about us sleeping together." Rick complained.
Drew grimaced, agreeing. "It's better than homosexuality."
"Why can't they just say gay?"
"Gay is an insult; same sex couple is too much of a tongue twister for people to scream." Drew explained. There wasn't a great; every word to describe their relationship had been hijacked and made negative. Even their language was pitted against them.
Rick shook his head, annoyed, but they had bigger fish to fry.
"So which rights made it on the chopping block?" he asked.
Drew didn't answer right away, sorting through a couple different articles at the same time.
"I can't really tell; every news organization used a different word for it." Rick leaned back to see Drew's computer already covered with four tabs reporting the same basic news but with different terms. He unplugged his phone; this was going to be a hassle.
"Come on. I'm making coffee." Drew followed wordlessly, his computer still open.
The corner of Drew's laptop just barely missed the edge of the table as he set it down.
"Publicly funded benefits, spousal benefits, tax-funded benefits, marriage benefits, government- subsidized marriage benefits, marriage related benefits…the right to marry does not "entail any particular package of tax benefits, employee fringe benefits or testimonial privileges…" Drew listed all the terms from the different news article over the quiet noises of Rick pouring coffee grinds.
"They should get together and write a thesaurus." Rick suggested.
Drew smiled a little in acknowledgement and grabbed a couple of blank sheets of paper from the printer.
"Look them up individually." Drew said, listing the terms on a sheet of paper. "You take from marriage related benefits down."
Looking up complex legal terms in a search engine that was designed to encourage click bait hits quickly became annoying. Half the terms had confusing definitions and the other half yielded the same ten articles even when he entered different words in the search engine. This went on for another fifteen minutes, during which time Drew got both of them coffee and Rick stood briefly to grab his own computer.
"Okay." Drew started, signaling their regrouping. "The two minute version." Rick had started summarizing the definitions on his own sheet of paper. At this rate, they were going to need a spreadsheet.
"Marriage related benefits, as you might imagine, are the benefits you get after you're married including social security benefits, tax benefits, veterans' and disability benefits, health insurance, joint property ownership. Tax benefits are being able to file joint taxes." Rick read. "Not sure why that one is plural; it is only one right. Employee fringe benefits are adding each other to company's health insurance and taking leave if the other half of the couple gets sick. Testimonial privilege means we can't be compelled to testify against each other in court." Rick finished, having already known that one from work.
Drew read his half of the list; he had known they had these rights when they got married, he just didn't know the legal names.
When Drew stopped talking, they looked at each other for a second. "So, do we get to pick which one we don't want anymore?" Rick asked. "Someone pulls from a hat; what's the deal?"
Drew sat back. "Yea, this is pretty unclear."
"Personally, I think I could do without spousal benefits." Rick started. "Social security is going to collapse before we get a chance to use it anyway."
"Mmm" Drew started. "You should keep the spousal benefits and get rid of the married related benefits; my social security check will be higher than my veteran's benefits anyway."
Rick clicked the space on his keyboard and resisted the urge to slam it down a couple dozen more times.
"They should be required to send out a letter explaining themselves when they pull stuff like this." If Rick had to write a letter to each person, explaining why he kicked down their door instead picking the lock, he might spend more time learning to pick locks.
"I don't want to be on some list of gay people in Texas." Drew said, his face drawn, his tone a little joking but mostly serious. "No, thank you."
"Remember that marriage license we have; it wouldn't be that hard to figure out it."
Drew looked a little disturbed. "Yea, the marriage license the government just gutted, I remember that one."
Rick sighed; this felt a little like entrapment, like they had been tricked into getting married when it was legal everywhere and now that they were out and their personal information was in the public record, they were getting attacked again. He tried to shake it off; this case had been going on long before marriage equality existed.
"Pull the document the court published, not a news article." Rick suggested feeling silly for not thinking of it sooner.
Drew did, finding a twenty five page document.
"Who knew you needed a law degree to get married?" He murmured, not understanding much of what he was reading.
He hit the summary button.
"They used benefits and marriage benefits but they are only talking about residents of Houston." Drew reported after another minute. Rick found the same terms used in a different summary of the decision.
"It was decided by the Texas Supreme Court though. So it might apply to the whole state." Rick countered. At least with Don't Ask Don't Tell they understood what they didn't have.
"What's our next move?" Drew asked, exacerbated, figuring Rick would a more proactive approach. In his personal life, Drew hung back and problem solved when things went wrong and Rick tried to prevent things from going wrong. This was one area he wasn't interested in waiting around.
"Get a lawyer and figure out whether you're still my beneficiary." Drew rolled his eyes, annoyed at the situation, not Rick.
"Probably better not to wait until one of us gets shot to work on that." Drew muttered under his breath, yanking his computer towards him again.
"What is the point of this?" Drew asked, too keyed up to start the search for legal representation. It still annoyed him and set his teeth on edge. "I can just find a way to leave it all to you anyway. It's not like they'll save any money."
"It's a power play." Rick explained. He had swung more liberal after coming out and even more so after Trump was elected. There was an explanation for homophobia, not a satisfying one or one that excused it, but one existed. "It makes our lives more difficult and reminds us that the government doesn't find our relationship legitimate."
Drew pulled a face and clicked and unclicked a pen with his left hand.
"I mean, it's not really surprising. Think about everything we learn about gay people. My health teacher told my high school class that gay people are criminals and a dangerous to public health. The military told people for years that gay people aren't good soldiers. That stupid case about the cakes in Colorado told the country that it's okay to deny people services if you don't like their spouse." His voice was even, but he was angry. He knew how the annoyance of the general public translated into public policy.
Drew's shoulders were starting to curl in a little, which happened when he started to feel defeated. Rick hadn't meant to overwhelm him. "The government feeds the general public all these exagerrations or misinterpretations about gay people and when comes time to elect the politicicans who appoint these judges, it makes sense enough of them believe the lies."
When Drew woke up this afternoon he had been in an exponentially better mood than he was right now. And he had only been awake for an hour. "One step forward, two steps back. What else is new?"
Rick sat back, Drew's mood starting to rub off on him. If they sat there too much longer, Rick would be too unmotivated to do anything about it. "Let's figure out how bad it is before we become too invested in the pity party."
Drew visibly pulled himself straighter in his chair; having a plan of action helped a little. At the very least, doing something pushed back the feeling that they were just letting people walk all over them.
"What area of law are we in? Marriage law? Constitutional law?" Drew asked, his fingers on the keys. "The government is being an idiot law?"
"I'd call that civil rights law." Rick said, keeping his voice even. Sometimes people pushed back when he called it that and unconsciously he fell into the voice he used to defend himself.
"There should be a number for this." Drew mumbled. "When you get shot you can call medical professionals to your house. When someone breaks in, the police come. When random politicians you've never met sends you divorce papers, there should be a number for that."
Rick grinned a little, watching the fight come back into Drew. He couldn't help but agree. The urge had faded now, but his first thought upon seeing the headline was to call the cops. It was an instinct based on years of training against and arming himself against threats. Useless in this case but nevertheless that was his first reaction.
"Wait, there is." Rick reminded suddenly. A couple weeks ago, his SWAT unit had walked into a house filled with overt racist material and it made his skin crawl; in an attempt to counteract that, he spent the rest of the night reading about anti-racist activist group online and had ended up looking at pro LGBT groups too. "GLAAD and Lambda Legal."
Drew gave him a look that was half grateful, half impressed he knew those off the top of his head. They split the work and each read through one website, not finding anything specific but submitting an online request for more information.
"Sometimes I wish we had gay friends." Drew murmured, still staring at his computer screen. Rick had pulled his scanned copy of their marriage license, rereading the fine print.
"Yea." He mused; it was easier to feel like a community capable of fighting back with numbers. It was the same reason he and Drew both preferred group therapy because the structure reinforced the number of people who had the same trauma as them. "The other day, I was reading this article about a woman who published all the ways she and her wife dealt with stupid questions from the general public." Drew sat back, listening, the urgent of the situation having decreased a little now that they had a plan and some request out for help. "Someone asked her who was the top and who was the bottom and she said neither, they levitate." That got a huff of laughter from Drew, who to his credit, didn't look embarrassed talking about it. Early on, he turned neon red at the suggestive glance, let alone talking about someone else's sex life.
"I don't understand why people are so mystified by it; there are like a bunch of ways to…." Drew waved his hand in the air, now blushing a little. "I mean, it's not like straight people always do the same thing."
Rick just stared at Drew for a second, his face light and raised his eyebrows pointedly and once he had secured Drew's attention, he quirked them suggestively. The blush faded from Drew's face as he shook his head and laughed.
"My favorite one" Rick started, grinning "is who wears the pants in the relationship. I told them we both prefer jeans." The literal answer to these bizarre questions usually shut the conversation down without starting a fight. Being angry all the time exhausted him and it just wasn't any fun. And on a good day, he could imagine he was encouraging that person to think about why they asked that.
"Or" Drew said, standing smoothly, brushing the inside of Rick's knee with his. "Neither of us." Rick didn't have a chance to shove himself into a standing position before Drew kissed him so the back of the chair hit the back of Rick's head. There wasn't a lot of heat there, Drew held back from the intense foreplay that usually lead them somewhere else, but Rick stilled grinned when Drew pulled back. Drew held his hand, being silly and pulled Rick to his feet, wrapping his arms around him so Rick held Drew from behind, arms across his ribs.
"You okay?" Rick asked softly.
Drew nodded, humming an affirmative noise. "This stuff is starting to feel normal; that's what I'm more worried about."
Rick nodded, setting his head on Drew's shoulder. They felt solid, the two of them standing there, less uneasy than before they were out.
"Makes being together seem like a rebellion." Rick gave voice to the feeling he still had sometimes, that their existence and their relationship constituted an act of resistance.
Drew sighed, rubbing his hand down Rick's arm, before stepping forward to lean against the counter, facing Rick with a contemplative, slightly annoyed expression on his face.
"Our rebellion needs better uniforms." He managed with a serious expression. Rick laughed, glad that Drew could be humorous, instead of feeling demoralized and closed off.
When Drew cracked a grin, Rick couldn't insist pressing another kiss to his lips.
"I'm hungry. Make breakfast." Drew suggested, a hint of humor left on his face.
"Dinner." Rick answered, that joke well established between them.
"Breakfast." Drew insisted. "I want eggs."