With all the LGBT uproar lately about Chick-Fil-A’s CEO Dan
Cathy and his outrageous comments about the Gay community, and then Huckabee’s
Chick-Fil-A appreciation day, and all those bigoted (so-called) men of God
preaching from their pulpits about how horrible gay people are, how we should
be locked up, deported, killed, how being gay is a choice, how our ‘lifestyle’
lends itself to pedophilia…OMG! It is INSANE!
And Dammit – IT HURTS! Yes I am
yelling! What the hell is wrong with
people? I was once told by a Christian
woman I knew (and who knew my 3 boys well) that I should have my children taken
away from me because ALL gays are pedophiles and therefore I was a
pedophile. I have been told to my face
that I should be killed because I am gay.
I have been told to my face that I will go to hell because I am
gay. I have been told to my face that I
am a horrible person and parent because I am gay. And I have been physically threatened because
I am gay…and people still think I ‘chose’ to be gay?
I don’t know…I don’t get it – it make me so sad…and it makes
me wonder what our real purpose is on this planet. Because from where I sit…it is hard to tell
why we are here.
12 yrs. ago this month (August) I realized, to my horror and
excitement (talk about mixed up emotions!) that I wasn’t straight, I wasn’t bi-sexual
(which I thought I was) – I was a Lesbian.
Oh crap! For the first time in my
life felt like I ‘fit’ in my own skin – and it felt GOOD. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders – I finally
knew who I was. But, about 5 minutes later
I also realized I had just instantly become: A Second Class Citizen and
socially unacceptable to far too many people and religions to count. I was simultaneously thrilled to finally know
who I was (and end years of depression and several suicide attempts over it)
and deeply afraid and sad because I knew what I had just lost – and I knew what
I was going to lose.
Realizing that I had just become a second class citizen and
socially unacceptable to the world in general was devastating to me. I am a very (boringly) traditional woman in
reality. I believe in family,
commitment, marriage, sharing your life with a special someone and raising a
family. Marriage in my mind is a
lifetime commitment and it saddens me deeply when it doesn’t work out that
way. I believe in equality for all. I believe in treating others as I would have
them treat me – with respect. But now, I
CAN’T get married and I don’t get equality or respect either (except from
individuals of a like mind). I am no
longer equal in the eyes of the state and federal governments, and I am no
longer deserving of respect by the vast majority of Churches/religions out
there. Strangely enough I do consider
myself a Christian, but more and more that term is becoming very uncomfortable
and I am finding myself disliking it more intensely as time goes on because of
the behavior of other ‘so-called’ Christians out there who are not acting very
Christian like. They give Christians a
Bad Name.
One thing that people yammer on and on about is the ‘Gay Lifestyle’.
Um…yeah – those of you who use that
terminology and think that way are so very wrong. First:
go to your dictionary and look up the definition of Lifestyle. My ‘gay lifestyle’ is about as generic as it
comes. I have a family, a job, a house
and a spouse. I cook, I clean, I do
laundry, and I raise my kids. We sit on
the couch and watch TV at night or play cards.
My home is modestly decorated with family heirlooms and family pictures
and lots of spider plants and a beautiful orchid given to me by a friend when
my dad died. And No, we don’t have a
rainbow flag waving in our front yard.
Our ‘lifestyle’ is one of modest living, struggling like everyone else
to make a living, paying rent and the bills:
You know – like how I lived before I came out only this time my partner
(because she cannot legally be my spouse) is a woman and not a man. Many people who are hetero have a lifestyle
that is far more extravagant than any gay person I know. Take a look at the famously rich who are out
there buying $10,000 purses to carry their pocket dogs in and $50,000 dresses. They spend more in a day on clothing than I
make in a month working my ass off. They
are flamboyantly extravagant to the point that maybe we ought to ask if THEY
are gay because so many people put this flamboyant stereotype on the LGBTQ
community. You might want to actually
look around: Gay people are living
boring, normal lives just like everyone else.
We do what everyone else does – we are no different from anyone else
except that we are different like everyone else.
Some people have this notion that we ‘Choose’ to be
gay. Um – that is like telling a straight
person they chose to be straight – or let’s get even more direct (and
politically incorrect!): Hey black
person – why did you CHOOSE to be black?
Don’t you know you will be discriminated against simply because you are
black? Hey Woman – why did you choose to be a woman? Don’t you know you will be discriminated
against simply because you are woman! Hey person born with a birth defect – why did
you CHOOSE to be born with that? Didn’t
you know you will be discriminated against simply because you have a birth
defect? All of you really need to
reconsider this choice and fix it and be different. Be white, be male, be healthy, be hetero – be like the
rest of normal, appropriate society!
Doesn’t that sound horribly offensive - and REALLY
STUPID? You cannot choose who you are,
your gender, your skin color, or your sexuality. You cannot choose where you are born, in what
country, into what way of life. You can,
however, choose to be accepting of other people and not demand that they be
just like you. Just because someone is
different from you, has a different belief system, different thought processes,
different skin color or a different sexuality – it doesn’t make them less than
anyone else. It simply makes us all different
from one another. What is wrong with
that?
Civil Rights are supposed to be afforded to ALL US Citizens
equally. All US Citizens, when they
become of legal adult age, can get married.
All adults pay taxes and contribute in some manner to our country under
legal obligation to do so. Because of
that we are all afforded basic civil rights under the Constitution and Declaration
of Independence. Unless you are
gay. If you are gay you still have all
the same obligations and responsibilities to the country BUT you are denied many
Civil Rights that others take for granted.
Marriage is a legally binding contract and a Civil Right,
according to the Federal and State governments.
Along with that contract come 1049+ State and Federal rights, benefits
and responsibilities. Those benefits,
rights and responsibilities provide a myriad of protections that hetero-married
couples take for granted. Check these links out for more information on
what Hetero couples get that Gay couples are denied (simply because they are
gay). See what being Gay REALLY costs
you - because it is a lot. (And people actually
think we CHOOSE this?? Are they nuts?)
For all those hetero folks who think the Gay Community can ‘get those rights some other way with legal paperwork’ I challenge you to make that work – because you can’t. And I ask you, why should anyone who was born a US Citizen have to pay thousands of dollars to ‘try’ to get some semblance of the rights others get just by marrying someone of the opposite sex? You show me how it can happen with the simple signature on a dotted line with nothing more than a nominal fee (equal to the fee for a marriage certificate please). I seriously doubt you can.
And by the way – all those religious people touting
Traditional Marriage are working their sorry little asses off to make sure THEY
get to define YOUR Civil Rights based on THEIR beliefs! Traditional Marriage my fanny – take a look
in that Bible and then talk to me about Traditional Marriage. With 72 hr marriages (um death do us part?),
repeated divorces (Rush is on his 4th wife), adultery (how many
political and religious figures have been caught in affairs?) and a 50%+
divorce rate I can see how the Sanctity of Traditional Marriage is working out
for the straight community. If this is
what Traditional Marriage is I don’t want any part of it. However, I would like to have the Civil Right
to Marry the woman I love and spend the rest of my life with her bonded in a
legally binding contract that gives us some guarantees, rights and protections
we are currently not entitled to simply because we are gay.
Let’s look at the religious issue for a moment. I truly respect another person’s right to
believe what they want – even if I don’t agree with that belief. But I take huge offense when those people
want to force me and anyone else to live according to their belief system. Your religious beliefs have NOTHING to do
with basic Civil Rights afforded by the Federal Government – and you do not
have the right to force others to live according to your personal belief
system. There is this thing called
separation of church and state. If the
Church doesn’t want to marry gay people, the state is not going to force them
to do so. And the church (no matter how
hard it tries) cannot force the State to not allow Marriage Equality (Same-Sex
Marriage) based on religious belief. The
Church WILL lose this battle – in time.
Keep your religion out of my bedroom and out of my Civil Rights. I deserve and demand the same rights I had
when I was married to a man. It is what
is Right. It is what is Ethical. And the
fact is times are changing – and those who use their religion to try and
control others – can’t change that fact.
Listen – if you read this far – thank you. The fact is these issues affect me and
thousands of others every minute of every day.
There are places I won’t go in this country (and on the planet) for fear
of my physical safety because I am gay.
That is wrong. I do not have
equal Civil Rights in a country I was born in because I am gay. Heterosexual immigrants have more rights than
I do. That is wrong. People have the legal right to discriminate
against me all over the country because I am gay. That is wrong. People joyfully run to a crappy fast food
place to support an organization who donates millions of dollars to anti-gay
hate organizations in the name of Christianity but refuse to do the same at
food banks and homeless shelters. That
is seriously wrong. People will, in the
name of God judge, promote, support and act in hateful, hurtful ways joyfully
and without conscience against the gay community. That is wrong. People use bits and pieces of God’s word to
suit their needs and forget the ones that are most important. That is wrong. People openly discriminate and speak hateful
things about gay people in front of their children…God help that child if s/he
is gay. So deeply wrong on those parent’s
part.
Love They Neighbor as Thyself. What would Jesus do? Walk a mile (or even a few feet!) in my
shoes. What if you woke up one morning
and the world suddenly changed and no longer did you have the right to marry
the person you loved most, nor did you have any legal rights to your child, and
you could lose your job just for being you – and you couldn’t CHANGE you in
order to fit into what society felt was OK.
And what if suddenly other people were telling you that you were a
horrible person, who deserved to lose your child, or worse – DIE – because you
were who you were? Walk a mile in my shoes. It’s scary out there – it’s not fair. It’s wrong.
And when someone tells me they don’t think I should have the same Civil
Rights because they don’t agree with my ‘lifestyle’?
It’s Offensive. It Hurts. And it is Wrong.
