I Have A Dream

What do we do if we don’t get the democratic candidate to support same sex marriage? We don’t think about that until we have to think about it. I never have a back up plan. I just assume that when I step up, there are going to be stairs there. Perhaps it’s foolish, but fools rush in, where angels fear to tread. I am no angel. I am the former, but that hasn’t done me any harm so far.

If there is no going back from here, if we are to hold fast to our beliefs, if we continue to display these acts of civil ‘disobedience,’ what else can we do but create new standards for our elected officials?

If gay and lesbian couples continue to line up at city halls all over the nation demanding marriage licenses, if one by one, the mayors decide to let the people have what rightly belongs to them, if the media sees these families, solid and loving, so many already in place for years and years, yet without acknowledgment from government agencies and society at large, if they are unable to ignore the numbers of us willing to fight for what we believe in, if we can become an army of lovers, how can we lose this war? Would they bring out the riot police? Throw tear gas instead of bridal bouquets into the waiting bridesmaids hands? Hose the newlyweds off the street? “The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.”

We have no idea how powerful we actually are. So many of us have not voted or even registered to vote. Understandably so, for we were never considered part of the general, ‘respectable’ population. Why vote in a country that cares so little about who we are? “This land is your land, but this land isn’t my land” – that is what so many of us have thought. This second class citizenship has sunk in so deeply that we have barely any awareness of it. We had no idea that this is the enemy we are truly fighting. “The enemy is within, don’t confuse me with him.” That quote is from an Elliott Smith song and feels overwhelmingly appropriate.

That silent complicity with the status quo, even with the great strides in GLBT activism and the burgeoning mainstream gay icons of “Will & Grace” and “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy,” has kept the true face of who we are quietly hidden. We have no knowledge of how far our reach is. We don’t know our own strength. We don’t know that we are warriors. The time has come for us to know. Even if you are still in the closet, the voting booth is a private place to fight. No one has to know which side you are on but you, and know that when you are ready, you will be welcomed with open arms into your true family, the tribe you were born to.

If you are not gay, it is still your issue, because if we are to lose this battle, who will be there to defend your rights? If the government is allowed to take freedoms away from a certain group of people, then how much longer will it be until they come for you? We are a much more formidable opponent than anyone would have known. We’ve never had a chance to grab the brass wedding ring, the symbol of equality, the real civil union – not between us in place of marriage – but the union we have with the rest of the citizens of this nation. How strong is your grip?

In the immortal words of Bette Davis, as Margo in “All About Eve” – “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”