Submitted by sandiegotop4u (not verified) on December 12, 2008 - 04:20.
WHY I MARCH (and why Harvey was my hero and why my female dog is named after Harvey Milk and Harvey Fierstein)!
Three months ago, after 52 years of being a native Californian, I moved out of state. I loved California, its scenery, incredible weather, variety of people, towns, and its quirkiness. Growing up I was proud of California because it seemed to be on the forefront in being open to new ideas, new innovations, to a diversity of people, and not limiting personal freedoms. In elementary school we ranked close to the top in education in the nation. We catapulted the economic boom of the U.S. after WWII with our aerospace/defense industries, Hollywood, agriculture, and some of the best universities in the world! We tended to rely on science and facts to guide our policy making and less on appealing to religious fears, although we welcomed diverse religious freedom and freedom from religion.
Encouraged by wonderful parents and an enlightened community I partook of many volunteer efforts beginning as a child. I volunteered planting seeds on the American River bikeway, helping raise funds for KVIE, took part in numerous walks/runs for alleviating poverty and diseases, volunteered for a suicide prevention hotline, was an active Boy Scout, and volunteered for civil rights and environmental causes.
While trying to be the "ideal" kid, and an outstanding citizen there was a dark secret I held within myself. I knew beginning around 5th grade that I was gay. I did my best to hide this, something that I did not choose anymore than someone chooses to be straight. Against this backdrop in those early years were some fundamentalist religious extremists who while they meant well in their own minds were literally killing me with their proselytizing, saying that people like me would burn in hell and were the lowest form of life. I felt shame to such a degree that I almost committed suicide by jumping off a building at UC Davis. Others who weren't quite as extreme kept saying, "If only homosexuals would settle down and not be so promiscuous, and be more like us, we would give them respect and equal rights. Well for a straight-laced teenager to only be hearing these messages was a bit overwhelming.
Years later in Davis, California, I would hear these same fundamentalists saying that if we protect these homosexuals from discrimination in jobs and housing they will be flocking to Davis and make it a gay Mecca. That of course never happened and no one held them accountable for their lies. Later I would hear these fundamentalists, say, "We support equal rights for homosexuals, but not "Special Privileges" for homosexuals", in their never ending political campaigns against gay equality over the years.
Jumping ahead to the present, we have loving gay couples who are not promiscuous, who contribute to society, who want to lead normal, loving, supportive family lives, who support equal rights, not special privileges for homosexuals or heterosexuals, yet again the religious extremists have displayed their hypocritical, disingenuous words.
Our Constitution is traditionally there to support equal rights, not take them away. A heavily Republican Supreme Court has ruled that granting marriage, a civil, not religious contract only to heterosexuals amounts to special privileges for heterosexuals in California.
I can't tell you how many times I have heard religious conservatives say, "I think everyone should be treated equally and have equal opportunities and that's one reason I'm opposed to affirmative action." Or another one is "My God is all about love, and it's up to him, not me to pass judgment upon others." And of course we all have heard the line, "Same sex marriage threatens the sanctity of marriage!" If these people were truly authentic in that belief their Proposition, would ban divorce, as NOTHING threatens the sanctity of marriage more than the big "D"!
So, frankly I am saddened that I was unable to vote no on intolerance and inequality and hypocrisy. The California I knew in its day at least strived to welcome progress, compassion, and equality. The California I knew had Governor Reagan speak out strongly against the religious extremists who tried to ban gays as teachers! And when California granted special privileges for heterosexuals it turned away millions of tourist dollars from both the gay and straight communities.
I have moved to Arkansas, one of the more conservative states in the Union, but I know that my neighbors in the gay accepting town I live in (Eureka Springs) will judge me based on what kind of person I am. They recognize that if they support equal opportunity and equal competition that the playing field MUST be equal, and that if they can love and get married, then I deserve the same. Sometimes I wonder if some of the pro 8 people are simply scared of competition and might discover that gays and lesbians may end up having a lower divorce rate than heterosexuals. While I may have physically deserted the California I love, I pray that those of you there will continue to educate to open hearts and minds and help preserve the positive attributes of the California of my childhood. That is why I march.
WHY I MARCH (and why Harvey
WHY I MARCH (and why Harvey was my hero and why my female dog is named after Harvey Milk and Harvey Fierstein)!
Three months ago, after 52 years of being a native Californian, I moved out of state. I loved California, its scenery, incredible weather, variety of people, towns, and its quirkiness. Growing up I was proud of California because it seemed to be on the forefront in being open to new ideas, new innovations, to a diversity of people, and not limiting personal freedoms. In elementary school we ranked close to the top in education in the nation. We catapulted the economic boom of the U.S. after WWII with our aerospace/defense industries, Hollywood, agriculture, and some of the best universities in the world! We tended to rely on science and facts to guide our policy making and less on appealing to religious fears, although we welcomed diverse religious freedom and freedom from religion.
Encouraged by wonderful parents and an enlightened community I partook of many volunteer efforts beginning as a child. I volunteered planting seeds on the American River bikeway, helping raise funds for KVIE, took part in numerous walks/runs for alleviating poverty and diseases, volunteered for a suicide prevention hotline, was an active Boy Scout, and volunteered for civil rights and environmental causes.
While trying to be the "ideal" kid, and an outstanding citizen there was a dark secret I held within myself. I knew beginning around 5th grade that I was gay. I did my best to hide this, something that I did not choose anymore than someone chooses to be straight. Against this backdrop in those early years were some fundamentalist religious extremists who while they meant well in their own minds were literally killing me with their proselytizing, saying that people like me would burn in hell and were the lowest form of life. I felt shame to such a degree that I almost committed suicide by jumping off a building at UC Davis. Others who weren't quite as extreme kept saying, "If only homosexuals would settle down and not be so promiscuous, and be more like us, we would give them respect and equal rights. Well for a straight-laced teenager to only be hearing these messages was a bit overwhelming.
Years later in Davis, California, I would hear these same fundamentalists saying that if we protect these homosexuals from discrimination in jobs and housing they will be flocking to Davis and make it a gay Mecca. That of course never happened and no one held them accountable for their lies. Later I would hear these fundamentalists, say, "We support equal rights for homosexuals, but not "Special Privileges" for homosexuals", in their never ending political campaigns against gay equality over the years.
Jumping ahead to the present, we have loving gay couples who are not promiscuous, who contribute to society, who want to lead normal, loving, supportive family lives, who support equal rights, not special privileges for homosexuals or heterosexuals, yet again the religious extremists have displayed their hypocritical, disingenuous words.
Our Constitution is traditionally there to support equal rights, not take them away. A heavily Republican Supreme Court has ruled that granting marriage, a civil, not religious contract only to heterosexuals amounts to special privileges for heterosexuals in California.
I can't tell you how many times I have heard religious conservatives say, "I think everyone should be treated equally and have equal opportunities and that's one reason I'm opposed to affirmative action." Or another one is "My God is all about love, and it's up to him, not me to pass judgment upon others." And of course we all have heard the line, "Same sex marriage threatens the sanctity of marriage!" If these people were truly authentic in that belief their Proposition, would ban divorce, as NOTHING threatens the sanctity of marriage more than the big "D"!
So, frankly I am saddened that I was unable to vote no on intolerance and inequality and hypocrisy. The California I knew in its day at least strived to welcome progress, compassion, and equality. The California I knew had Governor Reagan speak out strongly against the religious extremists who tried to ban gays as teachers! And when California granted special privileges for heterosexuals it turned away millions of tourist dollars from both the gay and straight communities.
I have moved to Arkansas, one of the more conservative states in the Union, but I know that my neighbors in the gay accepting town I live in (Eureka Springs) will judge me based on what kind of person I am. They recognize that if they support equal opportunity and equal competition that the playing field MUST be equal, and that if they can love and get married, then I deserve the same. Sometimes I wonder if some of the pro 8 people are simply scared of competition and might discover that gays and lesbians may end up having a lower divorce rate than heterosexuals. While I may have physically deserted the California I love, I pray that those of you there will continue to educate to open hearts and minds and help preserve the positive attributes of the California of my childhood. That is why I march.