Ambrose Aban
Chief Blogger, QueerGasm
I totally agree with the president of HRC, Joe Solmonese, in his special new year message: What we won in this election is the chance to climb it.
It is true. We have to climb it, get to the top and fight from the top down. It would be easier. We will continue to tell queers around the country: we have rights, we don't have equal rights and because of that we must fight for our rights. Prop 8 is not about gay marriage. It is about basic decency and respect. So we must fight from the top down. It's more than we've had in my memory, but it's not going to be easy. And my experience tells me that a "fighting chance" is a good way to describe it, because we're going to have to fight for it. This is a lesson of Proposition 8 and of all of the discriminatory campaigns against us. It's the lesson of eight years of roadblocks to our legislation. The lesson is that when our community is getting ready to win, the other side fights hard. And they fight with lies. When we passed hate crimes in the last Congress, the haters rolled out every lie that they would later use to take away our rights in California. We harm religion. We harm children. We take over the schools. We put preachers in jail. The same lies. In a way, it's comforting. I mean, if it were palatable to be an out-and-out bigot these days, our opponents could simply take out ads that say "hate the gays? Vote yes on 8!"
But we are past that today. Today, people will turn against us if they're given a reason to fear us. And the same few lies serve that purpose every time—whether it's hate crimes or marriage at stake. Our job is to beat back those same lies. Every time. When hate crimes comes up for a vote in 2009, will those of us who are standing up against the Prop 8 haters come out against those who would kill this bill? We must. We must stand up.
We must never forget that even as we focus on the right to marry and the economic and spiritual benefits that it brings, we have a duty to protect our entire community's right to live without fear of being attacked for who we are. And we have a duty to stand up in this fight, and win it, because passing hate crimes legislation ten years after Matthew Shepard's death is a step toward marriage and every other community goal.
Chief Blogger, QueerGasm
I totally agree with the president of HRC, Joe Solmonese, in his special new year message: What we won in this election is the chance to climb it.
It is true. We have to climb it, get to the top and fight from the top down. It would be easier. We will continue to tell queers around the country: we have rights, we don't have equal rights and because of that we must fight for our rights. Prop 8 is not about gay marriage. It is about basic decency and respect. So we must fight from the top down. It's more than we've had in my memory, but it's not going to be easy. And my experience tells me that a "fighting chance" is a good way to describe it, because we're going to have to fight for it. This is a lesson of Proposition 8 and of all of the discriminatory campaigns against us. It's the lesson of eight years of roadblocks to our legislation. The lesson is that when our community is getting ready to win, the other side fights hard. And they fight with lies. When we passed hate crimes in the last Congress, the haters rolled out every lie that they would later use to take away our rights in California. We harm religion. We harm children. We take over the schools. We put preachers in jail. The same lies. In a way, it's comforting. I mean, if it were palatable to be an out-and-out bigot these days, our opponents could simply take out ads that say "hate the gays? Vote yes on 8!"
But we are past that today. Today, people will turn against us if they're given a reason to fear us. And the same few lies serve that purpose every time—whether it's hate crimes or marriage at stake. Our job is to beat back those same lies. Every time. When hate crimes comes up for a vote in 2009, will those of us who are standing up against the Prop 8 haters come out against those who would kill this bill? We must. We must stand up.
We must never forget that even as we focus on the right to marry and the economic and spiritual benefits that it brings, we have a duty to protect our entire community's right to live without fear of being attacked for who we are. And we have a duty to stand up in this fight, and win it, because passing hate crimes legislation ten years after Matthew Shepard's death is a step toward marriage and every other community goal.
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