I can’t attend the protests going on all over the country today, but I can join the impact in a different way. Right now, at this exact moment, people are standing up all over the country for LQBQT rights, and that is a pretty awesome thing. I can’t wait to see reports from the protests, because I think that several of them are going to get quite large.
These protests were organized around the freedom to marry, but LGBQT rights is about a lot more than that. While I think that the protests are valuable to call attention to the cause, I do think that some outreach needs to be done, to explain that what we want isn’t just marriage equality. Marriage equality is a part of the package, for sure, but there are a lot of other issues which need to be addressed. A lot of those issues are, I think, more important than the freedom to marry.
This is a nation in which transpeople are murdered because of their gender identity, in which gays and lesbians are viciously attacked, beaten, and sometimes killed because of their sexual orientations. We want protection from hate crimes, and we want a world in which those hate crimes are viewed as unacceptable. A world where police forces do not beat people because they are LGBQT.
This is a world where members of the LGBQT community can be fired with impunity, with businesses being confident that they don’t need to provide a justification for termination, except in a handful of scattered locations around the United States. As long as you can be fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, transsexual, or intersexed, there’s a problem. We want legal protections to include the LGBQT community in addition to women and minorities.
Members of the LGBQT community are routinely denied housing because of their sexual orientation. The Fair Housing Act needs to cover us, too, to ensure that when we are denied a place to live, it’s because of something like our credit records or income, not because of what our genitalia looks like, or who we love. The Fair Housing Act protects minorities and people with families from housing discrimination, and the infrastructure to support it is in place. We just want to be added.
We are routinely profiled by our looks, by what we wear, by what symbols we display. We are harassed by law enforcement, taunted by people on the street, mocked in our workplaces and schools. This type of discrimination may not be legal, but it happens every day, and that suggests that society in general has not accepted the LGBQT community.
LBGQT teens are at increased risk of depression, suicide, homelessness, and drug abuse. We need to live in a country where the needs of LGBQT children and teens are supported and addressed, where people can feel confident getting the help they need from people who are professional, unbiased, and helpful. I don’t want to see young transpeople turning tricks to pay for their hormones. I don’t want to see gay teens being murdered by people who use gay panic as a defense. I don’t want to see lesbian girls mocked off sports teams. If children are our future, we need to help all the children.
Members of the LGBQT community are also vulnerable to discrimination in health care. It wasn’t that long ago that medical professionals refused to treat or interact with AIDS patients, forcing hospitals to set up specialty wings with high-paid “volunteer” nurses and doctors. We are more likely to experience in routine medical examinations, including criticism of our sexuality and lifestyle, and we often have trouble obtaining the medical care that we need. Many insurance companies fight the provision of benefits to transpeople. This is wrong.
I’ve heard people say that we are “riding the coattails” of other civil rights movements, with tones of sneering resentment. Well, guess what, kids, civil rights is for everyone, and if we use a lot of techniques from previous civil rights fights, it’s because they work, not because we’re riding anyone’s coattails.
I am going to fight, and keep fighting, for my civil rights, and for the civil rights of all Americans. I would like to see a day when this country realizes its potential, when people are not mistreated because of their sexuality, gender, religious affiliation, race, or national origin. I will keep fighting against injustice until there is no more injustice left to fight, and I suspect that I won’t run out of injustice in my lifetime.