Aja Romano strode up to the podium to address the Bloomington City Council Wednesday. Speaking in a clear and measured tone, she asked the council to support same-sex marriage in Bloomington.\nRomano has brought the issue out of the national headlines and into the local community. With her petition to the council, Bloomington joined San Francisco and Portland, Ore., on the battlefield of the same-sex marriage debate.\nA long and difficult journey brought the 25-year-old freelance writer and computer consultant to where she is today, she said\nRomano grew up in rural Tennessee in a conservative family that attended a Southern Baptist Church. Romano said her church was one of the most anti-gay in the country, but that didn't turn her off gay rights.\n"I also grew up in community theater around gay people ... my mother always encouraged me to have an open mind and to be nice to everyone," Romano said.\nIn fact, it was the Southern Baptist Church that started Romano's thinking about gay rights. In 1993, the church launched a nationwide boycott against Disney for its "Gay Days" program that geared certain days of the year at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. toward homosexuals.\n"I said, 'OK, I don't agree with (the boycott)'… It woke me up," Romano said.\nBut Romano doesn't regret her upbringing in the conservative atmosphere of the South. Rather, she appreciates the unique perspective her childhood gave her.\n"Growing up in a racist community showed me that homophobia is not a personal flaw, but (instead) a cultural one."\nThe last straw came a couple of years ago when her best friend came out to her. \nAja wondered why Bloomington couldn't issue marriage licenses. She soon founded BloomingPride and began her campaign to bring the issue of same-sex marital rights to the attention of the local community.\nShe found Bloomington to be particular receptive to her message. As the first city in Indiana to seek out gay tourism, she knew it was "a very liberal community."\n"Everything started happening really quickly," said Sarah Relyea, co-founder of BloomingPride.\nAja impressed Relyea with her ability to handle the "massive response."\n"She said that she had never done anything as an activist before, but she has natural-born activist talent," Relyea said.\n"She's working really hard to make contact with people all over town and on campus. It's the kind of thing you need in something like this," said Andrew Wilson, president of ALLYS, a group of straight individuals working to support gay rights and has worked with Romano in particular.\n"There are two ways to change people -- you can change the law or you can change the hearts of the people that make the laws," Romano said. "No matter how many laws you change, you need to change the people themselves in the end."\n-- Contact staff writer Charlie Szrom at cszrom@indiana.edu.
BloomingPride has adopted a three-prong attack to work for gay marriage in the future, Romano said. It plans to pressure the city and county governments, engage in civil demonstrations and lobby the state legislature to achieve its goal.\nRomano is working with Bloomington City Clerk Regina Moore to draft a City Council resolution to express support of same-sex marriage.\nBut in the end, changing the laws will not accomplish her goals in full, Romano said.
