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FROM AP: 10 Things to Know for Thursday
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
My wife Kendra and I are acutely aware of the glacial speed with which HRC came to embrace the "T" in "LGBT." But since 2007 -- and even before then -- HRC has done more for transgender Americans than they're ever credited with doing.
I've been attending gay pride parades and AIDS walks since I was 4 years old. I'm amazed and moved and joyful that what once felt like my personal soap box is now everybody's soap box, but there's a little bitter part of me that CANNOT BELIEVE gay rights is even still an issue.
Regardless of the what the results may be of last night's efforts, JFC is well on its way to making $1 Million sooner rather than later.
The fact that people still believe that gays and lesbians can't marry is, in my opinion, an elitist discrimination borne of ignorance and who knows what else, perhaps an irrational fear of progress or basic human rights.
It's certainly true that many people claim that they find all they need to know within the Bible: God said it, I believe it, that settles it! There are at least two major problems with this approach.
Sanford's own experience, you would think, would make him a natural ally of anyone whose unconventional love story has been the object of public scrutiny. Yet, when it comes to gays and lesbians, the former governor's allegiance lies with the Republican right wing.
Our ability to look at the constitutional rights and ask what the framers meant -- through modern eyes -- is what makes this nation the world's great experiment.
Equality cannot and should never wait for majority support, but even more importantly, laws that thwart equal treatment under the law and thus create pain in the minds and hearts of those against whom they discriminate actively harm our nation every day they're on the books.
Some people are arguing that the movement toward marriage equality is going too quickly. They say that it would be better to go more slowly in granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Should we go slowly in ensuring freedom and equality for all people because it will upset bigots?
LGBT people wear invisible duct tape over our mouths every day -- not as a publicity stunt but as a mode a survival. We remain silent to avoid personal and familial rejection, to keep our jobs and our homes and to protect our physical safety. Our fear is real.
Gay men as whole have not always been the eager pro-marriage activists that we see marching and signing petitions today. But now the gay marriage door is ajar. We can see it, smell it, taste it, and almost touch it. And we want it. We really want it.
I know that the entire queer community is not on the same page on the issue of marriage, and I don't think we need to be, but I want to say why I haven't been jumping on the marriage bandwagon, and I want to really give context to my hesitation.
It's not that you disagree with me, and it's not that you're a proud Christian. The reason I call you a bigot, and the reason that we cannot politely agree to disagree, is that you are trying to make me, my life and my family subject to your opinion and/or religious belief.
We can support our friends who want to get married while realizing that marriage doesn't speak to all of our experiences, reflecting on those whose systemic issues that marriage can't fix. What about the queer and trans youth whose problems a ring can't fix? We need to put a roof on it.
Evolution has been a dirty word among GOP hard-liners for a long time. Now, at least, they acknowledge that it has something to do with change over time. A first step, perhaps, in becoming more evolved about evolution.
How dare we who are heterosexual presume to control and limit LGBT people's lives? How dare we suffer the conceit that being gay is mutable and can or should be changed by therapy?
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