Chega! Now is the time

Now is the time to show the world that America backs up her talk with action.  It has always been very interesting to me as someone who has worked abroad as much as I have to talk about rights comparisons.  I've heard too much, "Well in America, if you are this they don't treat you like scheiße."  True, sometimes they don't.  But, also sometimes they do.

With the legal stance of some aspects of my future up for discussion in the legal corridors of Washington, D.C. I got to thinking about some things today.

1. I am grateful for the sea of red when I pull up my Facebook account.  This may seem trite or unimportant to some of you reading, but it's the little actions that create change.  According to many polls, a majority of America supports extending marriage equality to the LGBT community.  With all these little actions, we are so close to a tipping point, it is SUPER frustrating to have to wait until June.

2.  It is the weirdest feeling to have the validity of my love deliberated in courtroom by 20 some odd people I don't know and don't know me.  To have to sit here MILES away, 'powerless' and praying for a good outcome ramps me up to no end.  Who are they to judge?

3. Namibia is an interesting case when it comes to LGBT rights.  Officially, sodomy is illegal.  Lesbians are okay and generally there are no laws on the books about them.  Technically, homosexuality is not illegal.  They can't arrest you for being homosexual here, the can get you for sodomy though.  However, the legacy of Apartheid has caused Namibia to ensure an ironclad right to privacy is enshrined in its constitution.  So... the question is....  :)    LGBT individuals exist here, they are generally left alone and even blackmail is unheard of when it comes to homosexuality.  Yet many LGBT Namibians I have met do ask me what it's like in America.   I have to admit, I'm a New Englander through and through.  The furthest I've lived outside of NE is Pittsburgh, PA.  So I can't talk about Mississippi.  Yet after the story about the first LGBT candidate's killing, I would say Namibia is doing better than parts of my own home country.

4. We need to clean up our house at home before we can go out to other countries and tell them 'like it is.'  I'm not advocating for a complete halt on working on LGBT rights abroad, or a halt at all.  I'm saying, let's ride the wave of public opinion back home and turn this country around!


I remember I came out on this blog.  As I said then and will say now, nothing has changed with me.    When I was in the process of coming out, I thought everything.  I thought it was a phase, I thought it was not normal.  But then something just clicked and I realized it is normal, it's not a phase and I'm happy.  I hope nothing less than society and anybody who reads this who isn't pro-equality will see the day when it just clicks....