The power of same sex marriage is sweeping this land. It's ok to be gay! With the historic Supreme Court ruling that struck down DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act) marriage equality is coming to every nook and cranny of America. Get ready bigots. Your marriages won't be worth the paper their documented on. That's right. The second the government let me marry my husband, your marriage was instantly effected and forever gone. IN YOUR HEAD
What an assault on the institution! The written contract of ownership and verbal contract of laborious vows for life. That sweet tradition of "to have and to own". Oh wait, that's slavery. That was once an institution too. Ironically, homophobes are racists too, so the shoe fits, either way. When you view marriage as an old time religious institution, you're living in the stone ages. It stopped being a religious institution the second the first Godless person said "I Do". Ever since then, marriage is a personal institution, created by those entering into a union with intent to commit for life. It is also a legally recognized institution, which automatically provides married couples with over 1000 civil rights to protect them and their kids. I started fighting for marriage equality in 2007. I've never asked for equality. I've demanded it! I Deserve it and so does everyone reading this. Only a bigot could claim to be in the "tea party" and not support my freedom from taxation without representation. That's what the original tea party was created for. How is it fair that the person I love should be punished with higher taxes (ineligibility to file jointly), while every other couple on our street gets thousands in tax returns because they can get married and I can't? That's in the past! Equality! I got mine! Go on out and get you some!
I live in Northern Illinois. I am politically active and aware. Many of my local politicians know me by name. They've been to my house and they've heard my demands and they've listened. As of June of this year, same sex couples will be able to get legally married here. I couldn't be prouder of our state and our country right now, with regards to equality. My closest followers will know that I didn't wait for Illinois to decide for me. I married my man, days after our 21st anniversary, in Dubuque, Iowa. I didn't appreciate having to search for puzzle pieces and figure out how to put them together in order to legally protect our family. We had a civil union in 2011 here in Illinois. We got married in Iowa in 2013, in order to qualify to file taxes filing jointly in 2014. I went through a name change, and legally, we actually do have all the same rights as any other married couple in our state, and on a Federal level. The only obstacle left is KY, and MO, and SC and well, you get the point by now. Marriage equality doesn't fully protect me in back woods, red necked, old time religion indoctrinated, good ole boy states. That's gonna change!
Humanity is becoming the norm. People are now connected, world wide, and have been for some time via Internet and social networks. Whereas, I was a child of the 70's, whose only influences were those in my immediate environment, and my religion predetermined by my geographic location, I am no longer that child. That kind of child will never exist again because the world has changed too much. Everybody's got an iPad. We have access to the answers to almost any question we can ask. We've got s genius in our pockets. Our connection is the key to our universal oneness. A virtual tower of Babel. The Internet teaches the gay child, stuck in a trailer in rural Kansas that it gets better. It brings us closer to the people around us, and those who have left us behind to travel the globe.
Racist, homophobic parents are the most abusive of all. When child victims reach out, and intervention takes place, a new hope is born. I learned this the hard way when a young fan of my gay news videos reached out to me. He was 19. He had been born with a disability. His parents were abusing him and he needed help. Nobody was there to stand up for him. His parents were getting away with it and nobody cared, until I stepped in. Let's just say there's a town I may never step into again because after I got done expressing myself to his parents, they had a restraining order against me. But guess what. It got better! That young man is a prominent equality activist online and in his community and he's like family to me. We've come a long way baby! Anytime a child is being abused, it's everybody's business. Step in. Say something. Do something, but make it stop. You might be the only person who can.
And so I'm optimistic for the future. These next couple of elections are going to be a turning point. It's time for all political candidates to be asked where they stand on equality. Those who do not support it will be shunned by the growing majority of voters who have drawn a line in the sand. Any candidate running against equality cannot be running for anything good. Only by showing up and exercising your right to vote will you be a real part of that evolution. It's your best chance to remind your representatives that they work for you, and they must share your moral value that equality is a real American value. Tell your Southern friends to turn off that AM radio preacher and get online and google him instead. It's time to wake up. We are one.
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