I hate that I have to feel this way, but i feel sad for those who never feel this convicted towards anything…
I saw Milk tonight and to be honest, it moved me the way that reading my first book about Stonewall affected me. It’s this feeling of even though we’ve come so far, we have so much further to go.
Not even against just the religious people, but the apathetic among us, who feel as though we have enough and just want to sit back and coast for a bit. All the while the religious zealots, and those they can rally behind them, are ready to pounce on the slightest show of weakness.
And then there are the hardcore folks, the ones who seriously attack us on the basis that we shouldn’t even exist. That argue genetics, but who never finished high school. That can claim this is a choice, but have never met a single gay person. That repeat rhetoric that’s been passed down to them through parents, pastors, friends…it’s sad really.
The arguments have all been shut down, yet they continue to spout them, even though the proof shows otherwise. Procreation, “traditional” familial unit, slippery slope, choice, “special” privileges, they’ve become so standard that I know them by rote.
My boyfriend pointed out something that truly made me sad when I thought about it. Proposition 6 was the measure that had just been defeated before Milk was assassinated. It was to fire gay teachers and the supporters of gay teachers. The reason, because they were trying to influence children to become gay, to “recruit” new members. The sad part…I’m nearly 100% sure that in 1978, when I was 3 years old, that my parents voted for it. I know they voted for Prop 8. It hurts that they can look at me and tell me that I should be treated differently. That I should be convicted by their religious convictions…even if I don’t share them.
I’ve had arguments with people, and even when I refute all of their claims, it always comes back to “special rights” for a class of people that shouldn’t even be considered a class. Who choose to be what they are. I never had an argument until recently. It was pointed out to me and pointed out by many including Jon Stewart, from The Daily Show, that we confer special rights on religions. We give them tax free status, we give them leeway in some situations because they have religious ceremonies which some may find objectionable. Religion is for all intents and purposes, a choice. Yet, those same people who choose to be Christian, Mormon or whatever, turn around and deny us our rights, because of our so-called “choice”. It’s not, but even if it was, shouldn’t our choice be respected as much as theirs?
I could refute all the other claims, with the myriad of arguments that have gone before. But I’ll just leave it with this, since I’ve done it and don’t feel like rehashing. We deserve to be treated the same as any other citizen of this country. If a man wants to marry a woman, he should have the same right to marry a man. Flip that, reverse it, for women. No goats, no molestation, no spreading of our “choice” to anyone who doesn’t feel that way naturally. No talk or treatment of us as anything less than an equal human, or you’re just as bad the KKK, as the misogynists, as Hitler, all of which seek or s…crap, is the past tense of seek, suck? Anyway, all of which strove to drive down a set of people, remove their rights, and treat them as less than equal because of a misguided belief.
Be human, treat others like you want to be treated. It may be “jesusy”, but it’s a truth nonetheless.
Paul Cox