sexism and marriage

[liveonearth]

The other day I was musing about the sexist assumption of a neighbor of mine that I am going to medical school to be a nurse. I was caught once by the riddle about the boy's doctor who turns out to be his mother when in my mind the doctor was quite male. I am sexist too, in that I assign roles to people based on gender. It has happened again. A girlfriend told me that she is involved with a married couple. In my mind I saw a man and a woman. But the picture didn't work in my head, because my friend is a lesbian who just doesn't get physically close to men. Never has, doesn't want to. So I couldn't understand how she was hooking up with a married couple, until I saw a picture of the couple, and there they were, a couple of lesbians. Oh. OK, here in Oregon, and in California at least, I guess I'd better stop seeing marriage as a man and a woman. Because I confess, until now, I have. Who gets the word "marriage"? If we were being fairer than fair, we'd share the word too.