Embrace Pride and Fight Prejudice
Happy Pride!
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The history of our movement is one of oppression, but in the middle of oppression we have always had a persistent and powerful voice of hope. In the face of persecution, our community has stepped forward to claim this as a month of pride.
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We continue that tradition because we believe that the world spins forward and that change will come and equality will rightfully be ours. Indeed, it is this belief that fuels our fight and it is this belief that gives us the courage to be ever more vocal and more proud, even as the opposition becomes more hateful.
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During this month of celebration and hope we are extending a special invitation for you to share your story. What are you most proud of? What keeps you fighting? What are your hopes for our movement? What about this fight are you most disappoints you? What do you hope life will be like for LGBT people in 10 years? 20 year?
I’m proud of my relationship, which also happens to be a marriage in Massachusetts, at least. As we approach the first anniversary of our marriage next month and the 13th anniversary of our relationship, I’m proud that we are as committed as ever to one another now after nine months separated by an ocean. I’m proud that we’ve been able to endure this separation, that we’ve managed to keep up two households, that I managed to care for and bury my mother without my spouse’s shoulder to lean on. But I’m equally ashamed of the voters and government of my country for not caring enough to prevent the cruelty of this all.
If there’s one message I have for all my GLBT brethren during June, it’s that, if we want to be fully accepted into the community at large, we need to think of ourselves and behave as part of it, and not apart from it. That starts with feeling neither ashamed nor proud of our sexual orientation. To show the community that our relationships are as normal and loving as their own, we need to emphasize our similarities to them. Let’s make 2008 the year we stop making a spectacle of ourselves in assless chaps and tighty-whities on a parade float and instead show this stereotype to be as errant as the notion that our relationships are by definition carnal, ephemeral and dysfunctional.
Comment by Charles — June 3, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
My girlfriend is from an african country that does not accept the gay and lesbian, She was also brought up in an orphanage, another taboo. She came to the US to go to college and after college feel in love with me. She knew she was a lesbian but could not let it show even while in the US as some of her country mates would side line her. We went to a lawyer to try and file for assylum but our lawyer stated she should have done that one year after she arrived in US so now its too late, tried to apply for the H1B no luck. She has paid her taxes while in college, good law abiding citizen. Am frastrated that everyday for us is a struggle.I dont know when she will be deported, and if deported where does she go as she has no family but me. She will have to hide back in shadows just to fit into a culture she barely knows let alone understand.
When will the laws change, i want to marry her i want to give her all i have, but i can’t because of some law. A law that someone thought fit to legally dicrimiate the gay and lesbian. I just want to be with my love, without hiding and wondering when my last dinner with her will be.
Comment by Matumbo — June 3, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
We will not sit in the back of the bus any longer. Write to Ellen, Oprah, and CNN. Our Civil Rights are being violated and this just cannot continue. 4UAFA dot com is a forum for supporting and discussing the passage of the Uniting American Families Act. The time has come for equal rights for ALL let me repeat ALL in the United States Of America.
Comment by SeaMex — June 4, 2008 @ 11:34 am
One day I hope I can live in america with all of my friends; best friends that were stationed over here in england and had to return to the US. I miss my friends dearly and wish that one day we can all have normal lives where we live together in the same country. And when that happens, it means my wife can live with her family and her friends that she misses dearly every day, a sadness carried for almost 2 years now.
I’m not here as a fighter, and I have no battle to win, so to speak.
I hope to achieve understanding amongst the masses, for america evolve as a nation, and for everyone to finally realise we are all the same, we are all normal, no matter what our skin colour, no matter who we love.
That is the greatest victory.
I hope in 10-20 years time it will make no difference what you sexuality is. It won’t be something hidden away from children like it’s bad for you; it will just be considered normal, because it is.
Comment by Weeza — June 4, 2008 @ 2:47 pm