We're Here Too

I made posters tonight for the rally on Saturday. I am SO excited! One is neon green, one side says "Closets are for Clothes" and the other side says "Out and very Proud." The other is bright pink and says Equal Rights. I need to spruce them up a bit but figuring out what I wanted them to say was the hardest part.

I've heard a lot of people, including non-straight people, saying things like "I don't understand what these protests are going to do, it's a matter of that state, it's a matter of their supreme court, etc. etc." The fact of the matter is the supreme court of California ruled that same-sex marriage should be legal, that it is unconstitutional to deny homosexuals the right to marry. I was always led to believe that the supreme court is the highest power in the land. In any event, we're protesting to show this country that we're not small in numbers, we're not going to tolerate being treated this way. We're mad as hell and we're not going to stand it anymore. Personally, I'm a ninteen year old out lesbian. I've known I was gay for most of my life, I've been certain of it since I was 14/15, I've been coming out since senior year in high school. I only recently came out to my mother, despite how terrified I was. We shouldn't have to be afraid to be ourselves. I'm going to go out on a limb and speak for all the little ones trying desperately to find their place in the world, the kids who know there is something different about them but they just can't put their finger on it, the kids who want so badly to belong, but they simply can't, the kids who would rather suffocate in a place of death than have to force the world to face the truth. I made it out of that place, but there are MANY who don't. This country is letting its own children suffer, knowingly. I'm not going to stand by and let this happen anymore, something must be done.

Give us our constitutional rights, our birth rights. Tell me I matter as much as the straight person in the voting booth next to me. You take my taxes and my vote, but you can't treat me as a human being. I'm so ready for this rally. People are saying "but this is massachusetts, gay marriage has been legal for years." Right, it has, but there are bigots everywhere. We're rallying to show the rest of the country that we're here too, we see what's going on in California, and we're not going to let them stand alone. Take some comfort, maybe, in those who stand up all over the country and say we aren't taking no for an answer anymore. We're here too California.

I think the Colbert Report summed it up best with "We're going to out live, out last and out survive the bigots."