Last month we dealt with race, and this month’s issue we’re dealing with the topics that apply to the GLBT community.
I am gay. I came out when I was 14 and have never had an issue with my sexual orientation anymore than a heterosexual would. It has always been who I am, ingrained in me just as much as the color of my eyes.
I have never been ashamed of being gay, nor felt inside that it was wrong. The only time I was made to feel I should change was by the Church or by ignorant, bigoted and self-righteous relatives and strangers whom feel that their way of life is somehow better than my own.
I didn’t choose to be gay, but I always hate the fact that people use that as an argument against homophobia or equal rights. Why? I feel that the fact that I didn’t choose being gay is irrelevant to the fact that whether one chooses to be gay or not does not detract from my inalienable rights to equality in this country. Even if it were a choice, I would still have the right to be gay. I have a right to the pursuit of happiness, to equal treatment under the law, to no taxation without representation, federal recognition of my Connecticut marriage to my husband, and to demanding nothing more or less than what the rest of the citizens of the United States enjoy.
Typically it is religion that is the culprit. It seems so simple to say that we have separation of church and state in this country in theory but obviously not in practice. The mere fact that religion is a part of politics or that equality for gays is a question is truly pathetic. America is only as good as the rights and beliefs it upholds and it is far removed from the idealism of its founding when one class of citizens are treated differently than another based on any religion’s belief system.
President Obama has “come out” so to speak in his support of gay marriage. This is lovely, but it doesn’t do anything for me directly. Note he never said he was going to work to fight for us, he just said he felt we deserved it. He also says he thinks it’s a states issue. I wonder what would have happened if we had left the civil rights movement towards racial equality under the law or the right to marry those of a different race up to the states. We didn’t, and we didn’t because human rights are not up for discussion or options by states to opt-in to equality or opt-out. This fight is no different, it is something that will ultimately be decided federally and will force ALL states to recognize gay marriage as well as gay rights in general.
This issue is dedicated to the rights of the GLBT community. Don’t just sit on your asses, do something about the idiocy that surrounds us. Do something about the asinine people who dare to say that you are less than everyone else. Become an activist! Run for office! Hell, run for President, stranger things have happened in America. Just fucking do it.
Donovan Lord
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
