I've been listening to a lot of Pete Seger lately. And I find myself thinking a lot about the 1960's, thinking about the civil rights movement, thinking about love. For a long time I had wished that I came of age in the 1960's, so I would have something to sing about, be in the middle of the civil rights movement or the Vietnam Protests. Always thinking that there is no great battle for my generation to fight, but that isn't true.
Our Civil Rights cause is Gay Rights. The right for homosexual couples to express their love in any way that they personally see fit, that includes the right to get married and the right to adopt children.
Back when I was in College I was harassed at a local restaurant. A man there started trying to insult me, calling me "gay" and names like a "faggot." He asked me if I was gay, I responded by asking him why it really matters, why, if I were a homosexual, he would choose to harass me, what was so wrong about being a homosexual. He continued to bait me, the entire time I was there as if I were some kind of freak, less than human, that I was some a worse person than anyone else just because I refused to acknowledge that I was a heterosexual and because he thought I was gay. This is the point of view that I have found all over the country, some of my closest friends hold this opinion, however unguided and ignorant it is.
A week ago, my home state of Connecticut overturned their ban on Same-Sex Marriage. I have never been more proud of my home state in my life, I am honored to be a citizen of the third state to legalize Gay Marriage. But that being said, it is 2008 and Connecticut is the third, let me say that again THIRD state to legalize Gay Marriage, that means that there are still 47 states where it is illegal.
Many politicians, including Barack Obama, John McCain and Joe Biden have stated that they support Civil Unions but do not support same-sex marriage. Many opponents of same-sex marriage claim that a Civil Union is legally the same as a marriage, this is not true. Civil Unions only exist in a handful of places and the Civil Union is not valid in states that do not recognize Civil Unions. Civil Unions are also not recognized by the federal government, therefore couples would not be able to file joint-tax returns or be eligible for tax breaks or protections the government affords to married couples. Civil Unions also do not include all of the benefits that a marriage include. No one should be able to tell someone that their relationship, their love is less valid than another one, that their love doesn't deserve the same as another's love.
Right now in the United States same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt children in five states, the law is ambiguous in 36 states. Some states even allow single homosexual parents to adopt but will not allow couples to adopt. In the 36 states that don't have a clear stance on adoption for same-sex couples, prospective parents are at the mercy of judges who decide whether or not they should be allowed to adopt, mostly based on their sexual orientation.
It is beyond me, how someone could say that the love between any two people is not valid. There are plenty of homosexual couples whose love is more pure than many traditional male and female relationships. There is no way of disguising this, it is completely undeniable bigotry and discrimination. Marriage isn't only a Christian institution, pretty much every major religion has their own definition of marriage. It can be a religious, social, spiritual or legal union of individuals and not every religion regards marriage as specifically between a man and a woman.
People tend to forget that we are talking about people, people who want the same rights as everyone else. These are citizens of the world, people who care about the future of this country and this planet as much as the any other "righteous" groups of people. People. People. We are all human beings and we all deserve the same things and we in the United States can't claim that we are spreading freedom and we are a symbol of democracy when we are denying simple inalienable rights to our own citizens. It makes me fucking sick that there are people really intolerable to believe that homosexual citizens of the United States, no citizens of the Planet Earth, are some how less of human beings.
So while I listen to Pete Seger, while I listen to Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, the great folk singers of the Civil Rights movement it is important that I do not sit around and wish that I had a great movement to support, because I do, we all do. This is my call to action, my call to arms, to treat every single person on this planet the same, no matter their skin color, their religion or their sexual orientation. I urge you to join me.
We shall overcome,
we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.
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2 comments:
although I do think homosexual rights to equal institutions of marriage are a huge battle, I find that today we have so much to fight for as a generation. The direction our country has been led has been deceptive to the American people and the world on pretty much every major issue. How is there nothing to fight for here? Everyday I am angered at how as a society we opt for inaction and complacency when there is so many atrocities being done to our own people and the entire world population in the American name.
Oh I absolutely agree, I'm not saying that there aren't other important issues. This was merely an introspective into my own inaction and apathy. It isn't that there aren't important things to fight for, it's the fact that it seems like people lack the passion, the organization and the guts to actually stand up for anything, including myself. I think that it is important to find at least one thing that you are really passionate about and that is what the original post was about, myself, as an individual, putting my foot down and saying that I really believe in this.
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