Gay marriage rights are the new segregation fight for America! I'm ready!

[hsher]

This thread is dedicated to DUer and-justice-for-all and the GLBT community here at DU. Let me confess it: I am mainly straight, but sometimes bisexual. Even if I hadn't a shred of bisexuality, gay men and women would be my brothers and sisters. It's time to defend them.

I have no idea how to go about doing this, but tonight I am fired up. I want to start speaking out and agitating over this. I'm plain sick of it. I want gay marriage to be a Federally-protected right in this country. I want that right now. I won't wait any longer. This is morally wrong.

When I think about the obstacles and oppression gays and lesbians are facing over this issue, as a black person I cannot help but think about our own struggles during the Fifties and Sixties to make segregation and Jim Crow laws a thing of the past. As a Jew I cannot help thinking of our own Jewish struggles. To me there is no difference. For one group of people to believe they have the right to "prevent" other human beings from marrying is absolutely preposterous. How dare they? This is like right-handed people telling left-handed people "God says you have no right to write or draw", and then kvetching and nagging at the steps of the Capitol to try to make that a law...

Enough. Who's with me?

I have a few minor connections that could give me a media podium to speak from. For some reason this issue has touched me. I want change, I want action. We need:

Musicians, songwriters and singers to write pop songs that address the GLBT struggle
Cartoonists and illustrators to create art, such as posters, that demand equal gay marriage rights
Organizations to bring straights to the gay side as whites came to the black side in the 50's
Organizations that link straights with gays and send us to today's version of "racist Mississippi"
People with buses and bus organization connections to provide us transport
Brave straights ready to dive into the pipe, 5 by 5, and risk danger defending our gay brethren

Basically, it's time for a Code Pink for the gay marriage cause. Right now.
I'm clueless but fired up, and ready to plunge into this issue.
Who's with me?

[Ninja Jordan]

1. Good grief (nm)

[sniffa]

9. good gravy

[-..__...]

16. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl harbor!?!?!

Forget it, he's rolling.

:eyes:

[MuseRider]

2. Already there.

There are many state organizations. We have many chapters where the allies are almost as many as the GLBT's.

Good for you. Go for it, the time is now.

[ruggerson]

3. Don't be modest

you are more than already there, you are a true heroine in the fight for civil rights.

[MuseRider]

5. No, not at all.

I have been slacking while I deal with some other things (feeling guilty). Thanks though, you are very sweet.

BTW, we are going back to Meade for our meeting next month. I doubt Fred will make it this time lol.

[kevinbgoode]

10. How neat! I wondered how that all went. . .

I think you guys really helped provide that town with something positive about gay Americans - and engaged those people in some hopefully meaningful dialogue.

[MuseRider]

12. Yes, it did go well.

We met quite a few towns people and some of them counter protested with us and eventually joined. We had people there from across the state. If it wasn't for the 6 hour drive on my birthday I would be really excited to go again, lol. Nice people there.

[HockeyMom]

4. It isn't just about marriage

It's about civil rights. The whole package of discrimination. So many would like to totally strip gays of all civil rights.

I never thought that way until I went searching for an apartment. My lesbian daughter didn't want to go with me for fear they wouldn't rent to us because she is gay. She was right. But at least she prepared me for it. "This is your DAUGHTER?" "Yeah, want to see HER Birth Certificate?"

It's about civil rights. ALL of them.

[hsher]

6. Yes

Where was this?

I wonder if there's a site somewhere, where victims of discrimination can post incident, time, and place / establishment? That would be a terrific start.

Sorry she and you went through this. :( :hug:

Y'notice how hatred is stupid? It's like it said to itself, "OK, note to self: not quite legal to discriminate against women anymore. Let's try blacks. Huh. Note to self: not quite legal to discriminate against blacks anymore. Let's do Latinos. Hm. Not quite legal to discriminate against Latinos anymore. Let's move to gays."

It's like it's checking its way down along a list! What's next, when gays and lesbians are Federally protected? Left-handers? Green-eyed people? Red-haired people?

[pinto]

7. Here's info about reporting a hate crime. (from LAMBDA). Note that

this is about crime, not the "social" discrimination which many of us live with. Legislation won't change social attitudes, but hate crimes are a special class of crime and should be reported. As LAMBDA notes, if you're unsure if something falls within the criminal statutes, report it. It's the law.

http://hate-crime.website-works.com/lambda//hatecr2.htm

:thumbsup:

[MuseRider]

8. You could contact

the nearest GLBT group and see if they can help you. I know we have a group of lawyers who are there to provide pro bono help or advice. I am certain there is somewhere in your state to report this. Many places will at least keep track of the reports even if they don't do anything. It is quite helpful if people report, these are often the figures we use to get protection against this kind of thing.

[Cleita]

11. I just saw "Brokeback Mountain" for the first time.

I have no problem with gays. I have gay relatives. I wanted to watch it for the scenery. I have traveled through much of Montana and love the scenery. What I was left with was a tragic love story. That's all I could think of, unrequited love, the whole romance that cannot be fulfilled thing.

[MuseRider]

13. A beautiful, tragic

story. I too just watched it but it was my second time. To have to live like that, in hiding and in fear has not changed very much has it? I find it difficult to believe that anyone would consign others to live that way.

[Cleita]

14. I so agree.

Particularly, when one of them was taken by their father to see a guy whom was killed because he was gay. It screwed him over but good for his lifetime.

[kiahzero]

15. I'm with you

I'm working my way through law school and trying to figure out my most effective path for fighting this type of discrimination.

As an aside, a minor nitpick: how can you be "sometimes" bisexual?

[hsher]

17. If you could explain it to me, that'd be helpful ;)

Yep, "sometimes" bisexual. It's cyclical. I could almost set my watch by it. I'm heterosexual three weeks out of the month, bisexual for one. During the three weeks, not interested in women's bodies at all. The fourth week, I feel lesbian. Not only do I have explicit sexual dreams of making love with different women during that period, and have (let's call it a certain uncontrollably physical pleasure reaction) during those dreams, I only want emotional connection with women and cut myself off from men who are interested in me. It's like they can do nothing for me - all I want during those times is another woman. Then the week fades, and gradually I'm interested in sex and emotional intimacy with men again... until week four approaches again.

It's like lesbian pon farr.

PON FARR: definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pon_farr

This, in my humble estimation, qualifies as being heterosexual but "sometimes" bisexual. What would you call it? (No rude answers please. This condition has confused me for years, and sometimes caused me and other people emotional pain. Thanks.)

[Ninja Jordan]

18. It's called PMS.

[kiahzero]

19. OK, that would seem to be accurate, then.

The problem is that many people use it to mean "I'm attracted to some people of the same sex," which would be a fixed orientation along the lines of a 2 on the Klein Grid; this has the negative effect of continuing the idea that sexual orientation is about what you do, rather than how you feel. This is the same attitude that leads people to describe bisexual people who only allow themselves to form intimate relationships with members of the opposite sex as "heterosexual."

[bicentennial_baby]

20. Um, you can't just be "sometimes bisexual"

Either you are, or you aren't, it's a fixed orientation. Sure, you can be attracted to one or the other gender at different times, but being attracted to the opposite sex at a particular moment doesn't make you temporarily straight. And conversely, being attractd to the same sex at different times doesn't make you temporarily gay either...

[LostinVA]

22. Thank you for sparing me the effort n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

23. No problem

:hug:

[foreigncorrespondent]

21. Well if you are ready...

...then perhaps you should begin saying marriage equality instead of gay marriage rights. Saying the latter makes it sound like the LGBTIQQ population of the U.S. is trying to seek some sort of special right, when what we are actually after is the equal right to marry the person we love.