"Out of the Closets and Into the Streets"

I have a great many friends who voted for both presidential candidates yesterday. I have a great many friends who are ecstatic that Obama was elected, and a similarly great number of friends and family members who are upset that McCain lost. I don't do partisan politics. It isn't my thing...I can navigate the murky waters of it all, but I find it distasteful. When I consider politics, I consider the impact on the human condition. As I write this, Proposition 8 seems likely to pass in the state of California. This would illegitimize the marriages between same-sex couples in that state. When the California Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages...it was a moment which literally made me weep, because I knew that there was still hope for me...and for others like me across the country.
As I write this, I weep again. And what induces these tears more than anything else is not the fear that any inroads that have been made in civil law will be erased...no, that is not the reason. I weep because I know that so many of my friends and family members will never know why any of this matters so much to me. That so many of my friends regard my "lifestyle" as first and foremost a choice, and almost equally importantly, as a sin.
I cry out from my very depths because mine is a misunderstood struggle. Our story is not one that is told. People don't empathize with our plight because they simply do not know that which has been endured in the name of love. The gay world is not one of darkness. It is one of light and of hope. There is a reason that the rainbow is one of our symbols. It was a sign given to Noah...a covenant that life will be made better.
Even many of my fellow members of the LGBT community don't know their history. They don't know that the pink triangle is our yellow Star of David. It was used by the Nazis to mark homosexuals...who were killed off by the tens of thousands in concentration camps. They don't know that the McCarthy era of purging the government of suspected Communists was not limited to political sympathies. More suspected homosexuals lost their jobs in the civil service than suspected Communists.
They don't know that until the 1980s, gays were targeted by the police. Gay bars, and gay meeting areas in general were never safe or secure. Most people think of vice squads as being prevalent around the turn-of-the-century...when

prudish remnants of the Victorian era were calling the shots. What they don't realise is that vice squads existed almost exclusively for the targeting of the LGBT community. That police vans would literally surround gay meeting areas, break up the event, and arrest as many people as they could fit in their vans.
While gay publications were technically allowed to exist before the 1970s, it was difficult to distribute them. For two reasons: first...very few people were willing to subscribe to a gay magazine...because they faced eviction, job loss, and public humiliation if their sexuality was discovered, and secondly...obscenity laws forbade the distribution of most gay literature in America.
But let's go back to that first reason for just one quick moment. The loss of housing and jobs...because of sexuality. And this is the one thing that manages to infuriate me a great deal...

IT STILL IS LEGAL!!!!

I live in Manor Township. I work in East Drumore Township. When my lease comes up for renewal, my apartment complex manager could, technically, refuse to allow me to renew it...because of my sexuality. When applying for a new lease at another apartment...I could be turned down...for no reason other than my sexuality. My boss, should he so desire, could fire me for being gay...and I would have no legal recourse.

So don't tell me that these things are in the past. They are a part of my life. Just because I am too young to have been a part of the events of the 1970s does not mean that they are not a part of me. I hold tightly to the stories that are passed down...in the same way that I cling to the stories I am told of my ancestors' past. It molds me and shapes me. It impacts my life on a daily basis.
These are my people. And while I may not personally like every member of the LGBT community, I will defend them with all that is within me. And I do count myself lucky to be a part of such a community. I am blessed beyond measure by the friendships I have established, and the struggles that I have shared with those friends.


This is just the tiniest portion of what I would like to say...what I want to express on this issue. I want to thank those who have inspired me...those with whom I've discussed these issues ad nauseum...you all probably hate me for it...but thank you, I count each of you as one of my primary inspirations in this incredible aspect of my life...you are more of a blessing to me than you will ever know.