"An Open Letter To My Gay Friend..."
I read something tonight which I thought was a brave and thoughtful exploration of a subject I care deeply about -- equal rights. What is unique about this post is that it's written from a perspective not my own -- I'm not a gay man. But, I can still relate to how it feels like to be dehumanized and to have rights denied me. (Another ugly story.)
It's written by Prince Gomolvilas (who, I happen to think, is a something of a blogging rock star regardless of his political affiliations.)
Oh, and, please note: Nobody asked me to post this, or any of my numerous past anti Prop 8 posts. Nope. I openly ripped it off from his site because, it's that good.
I'm just an Orange County Mom who passionately believes we all deserve the same legal rights in this country, and that a vote for Prop 8 is a vote for bias and bigotry and all sorts of vile things that I thought we'd safely put in the past.
You can read his letter in entirety by clicking on the link, below:
"An Open Letter To My Gay Friend; Or Gay Marriage Is Not About Marriage."
"...There are people out there who want to change the law to designate an entire class of people as unequal to, as less than, every other class of people. If we lose this battle, I don't care that we're losing marriage; I care that you and I will, in the eyes of the law, be inferior to everyone else. And when our opponents see that our inferiority is validated by the government, it will allow them to continue on their path of dehumanizing us. That's what denying a class of people an equal right does. It dehumanizes them...
...Small acts were what drove the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in 1955; black students faced protesters when trying to attend a white school in 1957; people marched for voting rights in 1965. These small acts defied odds; these small acts helped to change the United States of America.
...The rights, benefits, and acceptance that you are allowed and that you enjoy ... are the result of history—history created by regular people, just like you and me, who weren't activists or politicians or crusaders. They were people who came out of the closet decades before us in a time when it was social suicide to do so; they were high school students who met opposition when they tried to start gay-straight alliances to foster tolerance at their schools; and they are the millions of people, gay and straight, who will vote no on Proposition 8 on November 4, 2008. The latter act is indeed a modest act, but one that will have far-reaching ramifications. One vote may be a footnote in our lives, but that footnote will explain how we stood up for what is fair, what is just, and what is humane. The story of lives reveal the scope of our history; the footnotes give us depth."
-- Prince Gomolvilas
It's written by Prince Gomolvilas (who, I happen to think, is a something of a blogging rock star regardless of his political affiliations.)
Oh, and, please note: Nobody asked me to post this, or any of my numerous past anti Prop 8 posts. Nope. I openly ripped it off from his site because, it's that good.
I'm just an Orange County Mom who passionately believes we all deserve the same legal rights in this country, and that a vote for Prop 8 is a vote for bias and bigotry and all sorts of vile things that I thought we'd safely put in the past.
You can read his letter in entirety by clicking on the link, below:
"An Open Letter To My Gay Friend; Or Gay Marriage Is Not About Marriage."
"...There are people out there who want to change the law to designate an entire class of people as unequal to, as less than, every other class of people. If we lose this battle, I don't care that we're losing marriage; I care that you and I will, in the eyes of the law, be inferior to everyone else. And when our opponents see that our inferiority is validated by the government, it will allow them to continue on their path of dehumanizing us. That's what denying a class of people an equal right does. It dehumanizes them...
...Small acts were what drove the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in 1955; black students faced protesters when trying to attend a white school in 1957; people marched for voting rights in 1965. These small acts defied odds; these small acts helped to change the United States of America.
...The rights, benefits, and acceptance that you are allowed and that you enjoy ... are the result of history—history created by regular people, just like you and me, who weren't activists or politicians or crusaders. They were people who came out of the closet decades before us in a time when it was social suicide to do so; they were high school students who met opposition when they tried to start gay-straight alliances to foster tolerance at their schools; and they are the millions of people, gay and straight, who will vote no on Proposition 8 on November 4, 2008. The latter act is indeed a modest act, but one that will have far-reaching ramifications. One vote may be a footnote in our lives, but that footnote will explain how we stood up for what is fair, what is just, and what is humane. The story of lives reveal the scope of our history; the footnotes give us depth."
-- Prince Gomolvilas
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