Gay Rights

I am a multifaceted human being and there are a lot of parts of my identity, some of which I'm more comfortable with than others. I consider being gay to be a smaller part of my identity than say, being a musician, or being a scholar, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a big part of who I am and who I am becoming.

Tonight I canvassed for the first time. It happened to be for a group called Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) which was getting voter opinions on a possible ballot initiative that would propose giving gays and lesbians in Oregon the right to marry. For two hours I talked to mostly supportive people about something that a lot of people in the gay rights movement feel very passionately about. Oddly enough, I'm not one of them.

That's not to say that I feel we shouldn't fight for the right to marry. It's just that when I look at the list of things that make me feel like a second class citizen, the issue of marriage isn't high up there. I'm worried about being employed, because in 29 states I could be fired because I'm gay. Transgender Americans have to worry about possible termination in 38 states for gender expression/identity. I'm worried about adoption rights, and hate crimes, and an entire demographic being told that they're not worth enough to serve their country. And yes, I'm worried about marriage, mostly because if I ever find someone I do want to marry, I want the ability to visit her in the hospital. I'm worried for transgender/genderqueer people and the idea that the LGBT movement seems to leave the "T" behind. I'm worried that in re-framing the movement to exclude the words "gay," "lesbian," and "transgender" from our organizational names, that we're perceived as being ashamed of our identity.

I want to own that rhetoric. I want to own this fight.

But I've always believed, specifically in politics, that it's easy to make potshots from the cheap seats and to second guess the policy directions taken by others. You don't get to complain about the movement unless you're involved in it. So tonight I canvassed for a right I and my other gay friends should have.

But I want the gay rights movement to be about more than just marriage. We just have to figure out a way to make that happen.