Erasing the Shame

Erasing the Shame By Fenn Thornbot

The (Earth) year is 2418. Austin, a sixth grader on the newly established Callisto colony, is hovering at the desk working on a family tree project for genealogy class. The assignment is clear and simple: Craft an exhibit about an influential person in your family from the 21st century. Austin had always heard stories of an 11th great-uncle (over 13 generations ago) who helped map and design the first colonies on Europa and then Callisto using remote-sensing technology. The same distant uncle that just happens to be Austin’s namesake.

The first part of the assignment is to interview a family member about this relative. Well, Austin’s grandfather just happens to be a history teacher who specializes in pre-World War III Earth. Grandpa Kleittun luckily knew quite a bit of this famous uncle of theirs and told Austin the story of how this uncle worked for the former Earth empire known as the American Empire. Or was it just commonly known as America, or the USA, then? This distant uncle supposedly self-exiled, or moved to another former Earth nation-state (then eventually to one of the earlier space stations) when his designs were used to carry out out a mass poisoning of freshwater reservoirs that killed over a billion humans in what was then called Asia. This act was one of the events that led to the Great Scorch that would later force the surviving humans to flee Earth. (The former American Empire still carries that shame, among a list of other horrific offenses, today in 25th-century history books. It’s as if despite some great achievements, the negatives always outweighed the positives.)

Grandpa Kleittun also remembers hearing stories when he was a child that this uncle was also one of the first relatives to marry someone from the same gender designation when it became possible to do so in that era of human history. Such a fact didn’t seem so surprising since

marriage between all differently gendered humans was the norm. Grandpa Kleittun was almost certain that when so-called ‘same-sex marriage’ was invented and made ‘legal’ that that uncle had gotten married to another man. However, somehow that fact has been lost in Austin’s family history. The story goes that the uncle’s parents, Austin’s 11th great-grandparents, were extremely embarrassed that they had a ‘gay’ son. What a silly thing to be ashamed of! ‘Gay’ was what they used to call humans who partnered with another human with the same gender markers. Even in the 21st Century that was a strange thing?! It was true, too, that at that time humans thought there were only two genders! Ha!

Anyway, the parents of this distant uncle believed that the deity that they worshipped (Geezus Christmas was the name?) frowned upon so-called ‘same-sex’ relations. Therefore, Christmastians (is that right?) from specific sects worked hard to create laws that would marginalize those humans who did things that went against the Christmastian orthodoxy. The interesting thing was that the parents were so true to their beliefs that they let them negatively affect their relationship with their son and his husband. They even refused to send correspondence (letters?) to the couple using their married names. So the story goes as told by Grandpa Kleittun.

Well, Austin wanted to be thorough in their investigation for this project, so they set out to find documents that would attest to the marriage of this famous uncle. Little did they know that the task would be more difficult than one would have expected. The only document that they found using the InterGoogL didn’t help them much. It was an obituary, or a story remembering someone who has died. It had been written in August of 2016. It seems that this uncle’s grandfather had just passed away, and the family was asked to put together an obituary that would be published in the local chronicle (on print paper back then?), which was a common practice for some humans in that era.

Yet, according to the Grandpa Kleittun’s story, Austin’s distant uncles were married in Earth month July of the year 2015. That was the same year that so-called ‘same-sex’ marriage was legalized in that former nation-state (back when you had to apply to the government for marriage). At the time, America was one of the last great military powers on Earth to recognize ‘same-sex’ couples. Despite being told that they were progressive and that other former nation-states (should) look(ed) up to them, Americans (as they were called at that time) were undergoing an identity crisis. They felt so advanced as a society, yet racism and other ‘isms’ still existed. For example, so-called Black-Americans (and other humans who were not thought of as part of the superior so-called White race) were constantly discriminated against systematically. Gays experienced constant discrimination, too. Although, White gays experienced it less than so-called Black, Latinx, Asian gays.

Anyway, back to the obituary. The custom was that humans published such documents recognizing the accomplishments of the deceased person, while at the same time listing off the family members that were still alive, including the spouses of the surviving family members. These usually appeared in parens after the name of the person who was directly related to the

deceased. Yet, in the obituary that Austin found online there was no parens after the famous uncle’s name.

Obituary, August 2018 (former American Empire, Earth)

Now, Austin needed to do some more investigation to get the facts right. Why was it that the story Grandpa Kleittun told and the document that Austin had found had conflicting information? Maybe the marriage between the uncle and his husband lasted only a short time. Maybe the other person died. Or was he simply erased? Austin had learned in class that ‘erasure’ was a common practice of humans back in that era. In fact, whole history books were written that erased certain events and distorted others. The saying they learned was, “History is written by the Victors.” “Who were the Victors?” Austin thought, “They must have been a powerful family!”

Austin did some more research, and, out of great fortune, found a copy of an electronic correspondence between this uncle and his husband. The correspondence went like this:

Dear Babezi,

I hope you don’t feel bad about what I’m about to tell you. I just saw grandpa’s obituary and you were left out. I don’t think my parents would have done it on purpose. Remember, it’s hard for them. When I first read it I saw both of my sisters-in-law’s names next to my brother names in parens. Yet, next to my name there was nothing. It made me feel empty like you had been erased from my life. Just know that no matter how much my parents don’t accept our marriage, it will never change how much I love you! You are my solar system!

Love, NASF

Austin was shocked! He looked at the obituary again and he could feel what it was like to be his uncle writing that correspondence. He studied it for a moment. Sure enough, the names of the other two uncles were followed by the name of each’s wife written in parens. But the famous uncle’s name wasn’t followed by parens. Only by a space. A lying, empty space.

***** 3 Earth days later at the genealogical exhibition *****

“And, thus, dear classmates,” exclaimed Austin, “Babezi wasn’t recognized as part of the family. He had been excluded. And, their marriage had been erased. Just like that! I had not known that I had two famous uncles! Babezi was a famous 21st-century author! The shame of having a ‘gay’ son was so present for these distant relatives of mine that they felt the need to erase uncle Babezi. And they were successful for 400 years! So, I leave you all with a question to ponder. What must it have felt like to have your ​own family erase a part of you​? Thank you!”