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....

The Wind of Change

I firmly believe the winds of change are blowing. After the wonderful victory in Iowa and Vermont, good old New York announced this. I guess liberal minded New York doesn't want to be out done by the hicks of Iowa. Let's have it change and finally be proud to say

Liberty and justice for all...

A week of equality

So this past week in America has been pretty cool on the human rights front for gays and lesbians. Notice I say human rights, cause that's exactly what I believe it is. Anyway, we are now at 4 states where a marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is legal. I'm beyond happy that Iowa ruled in our favor. It was truly inspirational that Vermont brought equal rights into effect through legislation! It wasn't a court mandate, it was "the will of the people." I just think it's very ironic that this country prides itself on "liberty and justice for all." Yet I can't get married in the majority of states.

However, with the events of the past week (and the fact that a state OUTSIDE of the Northeast has ruled in favor of human rights) has given me hope. It's given me hope that religious conservatives will finally start practicing what they preach. Maybe the God is Love doctrine will finally be understood. God is love.

Is love capable of hate?

Thank you Vermont, Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Remember everyone that you know at least one person these hateful,bigoted laws like prop 8 in CA and prop 2 in FL affect personally.

You read this blog after all...

Is this man evil?

I'm going to the Daily Show today and found this prayer from my friend Virginia. It's a prayer by Bishop Gene Robinson who is the gay Episcopal/Anglican bishop from New Hampshire.

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears - for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand - that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.


Is he evil because he likes men?