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marriage equality backlash
Apr. 9th, 2009 11:36 amAs most of you know, there's been some great strides on the gay marriage issue in the last week.
As perhaps fewer of you know (but most of you can surmise), opponents of marriage equality aren't happy and are putting more money, more time, more rhetoric into opposing equal rights for LGBTQ people.
To be frank, I haven't had the time or the fortitude yet to watch the commercials their currently putting forward. I have read the transcripts, though, and I have read the reports that the people claiming to be regular citizens are in fact hired actors.
But I am alarmed. And concerned. And offended.
Regardless of whether you are queer or not, regardless of whether you are an LGBTQ who has any intention of ever taking part in marriage (is it assimilationist? does it fit with our unique cultures? -- these are valid, serious questions) -- this measure of legal equality needs to exist.
But even more than that, the fear-mongering and the anger of people of privilege discovering that they can no longer control the discourse or the lives of others, must not go unaddressed.
I'm old enough to have experienced and witnessed harassment and violence because of the orientation and identity of my friends and myself. It's barely a reality anymore in many places in this country. But it's still real. It still happens. Here, at home. And also, in terrifying measure, abroad.
I want to believe change can come without violence. But I see the rhetoric from the self-proclaimed defenders of so-called traditional marriage, and it's hard, really hard for me to believe that.
I came of age during the ACT UP protests. I wore a t-shirt that showed SILENCE=DEATH in ASL.
Speak.
Speak.
Speak.
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bodlon does here with links to the offending campaigns.
As perhaps fewer of you know (but most of you can surmise), opponents of marriage equality aren't happy and are putting more money, more time, more rhetoric into opposing equal rights for LGBTQ people.
To be frank, I haven't had the time or the fortitude yet to watch the commercials their currently putting forward. I have read the transcripts, though, and I have read the reports that the people claiming to be regular citizens are in fact hired actors.
But I am alarmed. And concerned. And offended.
Regardless of whether you are queer or not, regardless of whether you are an LGBTQ who has any intention of ever taking part in marriage (is it assimilationist? does it fit with our unique cultures? -- these are valid, serious questions) -- this measure of legal equality needs to exist.
But even more than that, the fear-mongering and the anger of people of privilege discovering that they can no longer control the discourse or the lives of others, must not go unaddressed.
I'm old enough to have experienced and witnessed harassment and violence because of the orientation and identity of my friends and myself. It's barely a reality anymore in many places in this country. But it's still real. It still happens. Here, at home. And also, in terrifying measure, abroad.
I want to believe change can come without violence. But I see the rhetoric from the self-proclaimed defenders of so-called traditional marriage, and it's hard, really hard for me to believe that.
I came of age during the ACT UP protests. I wore a t-shirt that showed SILENCE=DEATH in ASL.
Speak.
Speak.
Speak.
bodlon does here with links to the offending campaigns.
