Please share. I know this is more than a simple sentence to read, but indulge me for the holiday.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
This breaks my heart to still see, hear & read almost 10 years after Matthew Sheppard and it's just one of many similar stories. This one has a voice. This one has faces and names. (and YouTube)
It's why I live here in SoCal.
It's why I feel safe....real or imagined.
It's why I continue to speak in colleges, high schools & community forums...
(It's why I'm crying here at work at my desk because so many of you just don't GET IT)
It's why I will not vote for ANY candidate who would not grant me equality without stipulations by trying to go the "separate but equal" route where I can sip marriage from that "other" water fountain.
it's why I believe that any of you other gays out there who allow yourself to think that you can only vote for someone who statistically the polls say actually has a chance of winning instead of someone who--without hesitation--would hand us marriage is essentially saying to yourself, "I'm not good enough to have what others have or even to ask for it so I'll settle for a candidate who will tolerate me but not accept me; someone who might get the ball rolling so that someday I can sit at the grown-up table but for now will pat me on the head with that look of 'someday' in their eye." I may have hated myself in many ways for many things over the years, but I've never hated myself that much. Why can you? And to those of you who may never get married or who say, "I don't hate myself, marriage just isn't an issue that affects me." I say, "Keep performing, Monkey. Keep performing."
And those of you who are straight and don't really get what all this noise is about or why it should matter so much.... just search the faces of the parents in the video and imagine now that it's your son or daughter.
Love,
ALL-ways,
j.r.me
