hate in Rhode Island

[rm]

Much of queer history has involved loving in secret. This has also meant mourning in secret. Much of the demand for a world that required neither of these tragedies came out of the AIDS crisis. Much of my coming out to myself, and others, was initially done with this as a backdrop; it is real to me, visceral and terrifying and not so far away as it should be.

In an act of bigotry, the governor of Rhode Island has vetoed a bill giving domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of — and make funeral arrangements for — their loved ones.

Aside from its obvious practical consequences, this act says that in the governor's view gay people are not fully human and either incapable of or not entitled to the full spectrum of human emotions, including grief and love, and that the family units we have been making for centuries as best we can in even the darkest of times are, apparently, merely, figments of our imagination.

Silence = Death remains one of, if not the, most important thing I have ever learned. I know this every time someone wishes I were quieter.

Comments

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

I think someone should introduce a bill requiring that heterosexual couples be in exclusive, committed relationships for over a year before applying for a marriage license if a year "is not a sufficient duration to establish a serious bond between two individuals."

[rm.livejournal.com]

My parents got married after knowing each other for six weeks. They're still together, 38 years later.

This stuff is so much bullshit. Married het people can sleep around, but gay people -- we better restrict all that homosex!

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to know which members of his family tree did the same.

[(Anonymous)]

What about polyamorous triads, quads, and quints? There is precedent for polyamorous groups in other cultures, why not ours?