Hello, my friends.
Recently I began volunteering for the Courage Campaign out of California. What they want right now (for the next two weeks, especially) is for people from across the country to share their stories about dealing with homosexuality in our country. What challenges there are and if there is any backlash for supporting any people regardless of their sexuality.
Some of you may not think you have much of a story, because you aren't homosexual or aren't trans-gender, you may think that you don't have too much of a story to tell. But if you care about this issue, if you have one friend who isn't straight and boring heterosexual person, then you can find something to say. Every story says something and we want any story, big or small.
As an example, I have included the story I wrote for this (Also on http://whythefuckamistartingablog.blogspot.com/2011/06/declining-bigotry.html). It isn't too remarkable. It isn't a life-long struggle, it is just one of the only fights for rights I have been in recently and I thought it would be an appropriate one to tell. After you tell your story, write it down or (better for them) record it on video, or take a picture, you can upload it at: http://testimony.couragecampaign.org/home. If you have any trouble doing this, you can contact me and I can try to help you.
Please, tell use one story in your life about supporting equal rights for all. It doesn't matter how big it is or small it is or if you think you are a good writer. It only matters when you tell your story. It will do something, big or small, it will do something. And I hope you can be proud of that!
Thank you for your time,
My story is down here,
TTFN, Edward
Declining Bigotry
There are times when the problems in the world seem over whelming, that everything is going downhill. But then there are times when we have to realize that ignorant bigotry is disappearing. It is a slow and unsteady process marked at times by the passing of a generation out of our world, but it is happening, at least in some places.
Where I live, one hardly experiences it. The laws in Colorado are not always the most progressive; despite having a very well educated population, we don't spend very much on keeping it; and we are not of of the states in the Union which has done much to specifically legalize marriage between two people of the same sex, but at the same time, I have not heard much of a push to define it as a "one man one woman" thing. We just sit is political stagnation about everything.
However, out of all the people I have ever dealt with in my life, I have never felt much pressure against gay marriage, I have never felt that if I stood up for anyones rights I would be attacked. Or that anyone would care very much; apathy is the deadliest problem with my fellow Coloradans that I have witnessed. My few experiments into this arena testify to this for me.
I have a co-worker, we'll call him "Dave", who is constantly the butt end of every joke in the facility, has his intelligence insulted by his own parents, and has enough self-esteem to drink himself into making out with sidewalks at 3:00 in the morning most days. I am probably the only person at work who doesn't spend most of my time trying to make fun of him. Ryan takes slow parts of the day to seek Dave out and tell him to talk, because anything he says will be hilarious because it is stupid.
I feel a little bad for poor Dave. It isn't always that he is completely brain dead, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence and, after all, has been taught by our society to act this way. It has brought him social success; any attention is good. However, a few weeks ago, he expressed that, "if it weren't illegal, he would kill homosexual people. All of them."
Kill.
I immediately shot back that this pretty much proves what people say about him. He isn't very smart. "Really? A lack of law is the only thing that prevents you from being a homicidal maniac? That's pretty scary, Dave. I think we should probably put you in jail right now, just to get you off the streets. Because that is pretty crazy. That's really unhealthy. That is very bad."
He was a little taken aback. "What!" He replied after several minutes of this, "It was how I was raised."
"That's not a very good reason for anything," I told him, "That's just a poor excuse. You can be more than what you were raised told you to be. You don't have to do what your parents did. You can make up your own mind, Dave."
The part of this story which is the most heartening is that everyone who heard of this sided with me. Ryan, of course did. He likes Dave only to hear him say stupid things. But there was absolutely no one who gave Dave an ounce of support. He was instantly vilified for this. It wasn't funny (completely. Some people found it funny, because it was Dave and he is always stupid and this was just a one-up from anything he'd said before.) it was stupid, purely.
It is this which gives me hope. I see that even people like Dave will change their mind in the fairly near future because they will have to. It is no longer socially advantageous to be a bigot. There is nothing to gain, there is plenty to lose so that even the most selfishly minded in our society will not be able to maintain their bigotry.
The pendulum is slowing. There isn't much to fight against, so fewer people fight very hard. This leads to stagnation on any issue. This is what has to be fought where I am. But the good news is: that progress has been made which can lead to political action.
