Friday, November 6, 2009

A Love Letter

I found or was directed to this "love letter" on andrewsullivan.com, sent by a Californian lesbiancouple to those couples in Maine who lost the right to marry, thus perpetuating second class citizenship of LGBTQ people.

What I liked about this love letter was the silver lining statement, which they discovered after Californians who are LGBTQ are forced to live a second class citizenship:

When Prop 8 passed, we couldn't go anywhere—not to our local coffee shop or sandwich stand, to the bank or to the market—without looking at every single face and wondering "Did you vote against our marriage?" You too will wake up tomorrow with this same vulnerable distrust for your neighbors; you too will wake up tomorrow knowing that the majority of your state deems you unworthy of first-class citizenship. It is a weight heavier than any shoulders are meant to bear.

But here's the very fine silver lining: You will also wake up in the coming days to a support group you may not have known you had. Many of your neighbors, coworkers, family and friends will stand up to rally behind you. They will hold candles at vigils and wave signs in protest; they will say they never thought that Question 1 would pass; they will say they wish they had done more, and they will be ready to do so. Much of the country will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you, as they have done for us in California, to say that discrimination will not stand and that you do not stand alone. Maine will wake up to a new state of disharmony, where it is crystal clear that not all citizens are equal under the law.

As a North Carolinian, living in a second class citizenship status, I found this silver lining heartening.

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

No comments: