It has been over two months now since the passing of Proposition 8 in California. Since then there have rallys, marches, protests, countless YouTube videos and even a musical number or two. As a member of the queer community I am proud and excited that my community is standing up and not taking this laying down and is using this loss as way to bring the community from coast to coast together. I am also pissed off that it took this to bring our community together for marriage equality.
Let's be real honest with ourselves for a second. It should not have taken Proposition 8 passing to make us angry and upset about the way our community is treated. We should have been angry and upset for years. We were not. We got comfortable with what we had. Our gay-borhoods of safety, youth centers, and the few states that protect us when it comes to work, housing and employment. For so long we,as a community have said, “You know, we will take this and will be okay with it.” We told America that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were okay with what we had and we were going to take it and be happy. Since we did that for so long people forgot that we are a people who still don't have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as our heterosexual friends and family members. Since we were silent and complacent for so long that is why fundamentalist America is calling our marches and rallys “anarchy in the streets”. We should have been told we were “anarchists” all along.
It seems like since Stonewall in 1969 we, as a community, only get upset and pissed off every 10 years. Stonewall kicked us off into the 70's, in the 80's its was the HIV epidemic which took out a generation of LGBT people, the 90's were all about hate crimes and now it's marriage equality for all people. Why do we only get pissed off every ten years? Why do we only stand up for so long and then go back to the closets that mainstream America wants us in? I don't know about you but this queer man came out over years ago is not going back into ANY closet. I am sick and tired of being pushed to the wayside because as a young person, I am not the face of this movement. Well let's be real clear to the CEO's and board of directors of HRC, PFLAG, GLSEN, GLADD and all national, state and local LGBT rights organizations. It is us young, queer people who are the face, the sweat, the tears, the late nights of this movement. You think because you have been around the block you know how to run our movement. Well let be the first to say, YOUR DOING A FUCKING TERRIBLE JOB!
There comes a point in every movement when the young must take over and get shit done. Period. As young people in todays world we see things a hell of a lot differently than you do because we live and grew up TODAY and not 20 or 30 years ago. All we see in your ad campings are white people. Guess what, we have people of color all throughout our community. They are the face of this movement. The young kids who are coming out 13,14,and 15 in rural America they are the face of the movement. Trans people are the face of our movement. Stop trying to marginalize our community into your white point of view because in case you have not noticed, our community SO much bigger than that. We are EVERYTHING about America. We have it all. So let's use it tell our stories. Let's start going to communities and neighborhoods where it's hard, where we have never gone before and tell our stories. We need to stop preaching about these issues in our own community because let's face it, your preaching to the choir and we are not the ones that need to hear it. We know what we face day in and day out. We live it.
So what am I asking you to do reader of this blog? Don't get comfortable in your complacency. Stand up. Speak out. Take it to the streets. Hold yourself and those who are currently running this movement accountable for their actions and words. Ask those in charge why there are no people of color or trans people at the forefront of this movement. Do not let anyone, especially those in our own community silence you. WE, all of us, are the face of this movement and it's about damn time America sees that.
Yours,
R.Q Kidd
3 comments:
Like I said, light the revolution on fire! I can't make it to every event, but I am ready to do what I can. This ally isn't going to let her LGBT friends go down.
I believe that the majority of the community is and have been quite angry and wanting a revolution. And many are doing so. We haven't really haven't had anything like this since the 70's, during a time when there were many revolutionary things going on among many minority groups.
I think a large reason why people are more vocal now is because straight people are actually paying attention to us and seeing that our fight is their fight as well. We got a few of our people to show the straight world who we are and what is going on and they realized that just because we live differently from them does not mean we should have different rights from them.
I think the reason they started listening is that glbt people are starting to stop pandering to them to try and get equal rights and respect. We have been so frustrated that again we finally shout out that "Yes, we are different and yes, we do want what you have because we deserve it."
The only people in the queer community who probably were just sitting back would have to be quite a few of the younger ones. Sadly, from my age group and below (early twenties and younger). We think the world is fine as it is, but it isn't. But it only gets better and slides back and hopefully gets better again.
We aren't as informed as we should be. We have all these ways of getting knowledge, but use it instead to see which celebrity is dating another celebrity or some other vapid thing.
We are SO lazy.
But really, I believe that is only half. The other half is totally unlike that.
I kind of went all over the place with that. I'm not even sure how to better explain what I was trying to get at the end there, but I think I'll leave it.
But anyway, I do think more people were fighting or at least very much wanting to and Prop 8 just tipped the already wobbly cup. And the only reason it (the anger and desire for revolution) is ever recognized is when straight people recognize it as well because this is a straight world. And it does kill me that is how it is. But they only way to end that is by stop just pandering to them and instead flip their world around. We need to start yelling, "Screw your world and your dated institutions."
We need to redefine normal.
God, I hope I made some sense.
I didn't mean to publish that anonymously.
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