We’re here. We’re queer. And we deserve equality. How dare you take it away? That’s why we’re pissed. California’s Supreme Court did its job interpreting their state Constitution. In the most sweeping state court ruling ever on the equality of queer Americans, the California Court finally applied its state’s equal protection clause and the full weight of state government to the protection of our civil rights. In legal mumbo jumbo, sexual orientation, like race, gender and religion, is a “suspect class” — a minority experiencing real, everyday and institutionalized discrimination, and in need of the highest levels of protection.
Boy, did that piss of the theocrats or what? The forces of the Religious Right think they have won their great “Moral Armageddon.” They think they’ve out-smarted the Founding Fathers — great men who saw the promise of America and knew that, one day, all people might be privy to its great ideal.
The Right will come back for more. They’ll keep taking until there’s nothing left to take. First marriage. Then, domestic partner benefits; they tried that in Alaska. In Arkansas, we already see where they’re headed — no adoption and no foster parenting. Next we’ll see our love banned; Lawrence v. Texas overturned. Like the right to reproductive choice, our right to privacy will be slowly usurped by misguided “states’ rights” courts and legislatures.
If the Religious Right — something of which they are neither — can take away one civil right, why not others? If the Mormons can organize to force their religious beliefs on an entire state, why not ours? What will be taken away next? What religious group will step up next to organize against the principles that have made our nation that great shining beacon for the rest of the world?
As for radical fundamentalists’ claims of violence targeting them — so what? Of course, that’s not how I really feel, but it is my first reaction. For all these years, gay and transgender people have been bashed and victimized and killed and now — only now when the “Christians” are the target — is the issue of hate and violence something we’ve got to stop. Where were these voices condemning the violence against our queer brothers and sisters? These self-righteous, sex-obsessed theocrats weren’t interested in saving any dirty, old queer’s life. Now that they’re the targets, now is the time for warning and caution? I call bullshit.
All of these questions, these raw emotions, our unknown futures — all of this and more are guiding our movement now. I’m not naïve enough to presume I know what the future will bring or what our movement will look like or accomplish in the next few months, much less the next few years. All I know is that it feels like everything has changed.
When my rights are put up to simple majority vote — everything has changed. When conservative and misguided religious forces organize to strip away my human dignity and equal protection under the Supreme Laws of our states and nation — everything has changed. When propaganda and lies lead my family and friends to vote against me — everything has changed. When it looks like those who quite possibly broke the law to strong-arm their way into violating my civil rights will go unpunished — everything has changed. When radical Christian Dominionists continue to march into gay neighborhoods and force their stifling, inhumane lies and deception on gay people already hurt and pained by the sins of the church — everything has changed.
A new day has dawned. An era has come and gone. Fresh faces and new voices are being added to the cry for equality everyday. I hope and pray like hell that our momentum doesn’t die. Go to the streets! Drown out the voices who would attempt to trample our Constitution and kill our humanity. Equality’s opponents must be shown that America’s promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” isn’t dead.
Until my full and equal civil and human rights are recognized, I’ll not stop fighting. Until the voices of anti-gay hatred are just as nearly silent as the voices of America’s racist past, I’ll not stop fighting.
What do I want? Equality. When do I want it? Now.
Online Extras
• See more Prop. 8 protest photos from around the Carolinas at www.q-notes.com/photos/.
• For joint news coverage by Q-Notes, Out in Asheville and OutImpact.com, visit ncprop8protests.blogspot.com.
Re your comment on the potential for other rights to be taken away — we’re seeing that scenario playing out here in Florida. Gay people who campaigned against our state’s Amendment 2 warned that it threatened not only “marriage” but also the lesser, separate-but-almost-equal domestic partnerships. Amendment 2 supporters pooh-poohed the argument. But now the right-wing Florida Family Association has disclosed it will try to change Hillsborough County’s charter in the 2010 election so that no public money is spent on same-sex job benefits for domestic partners. And its executive director says very openly that domestic partnerships are the next big battle for his group.