I personally once believed that just by the intrinsic fact of living in my truth as a gay man, I would automatically bring upon myself the curses of loneliness and disease. "You will never get married. You will never have a family. And you might not live to be..." My careworn aunt expressed to me with tears in her eyes, her deep-seated concerns about me carrying on in life as a gay man. I once believed her, seeing an older cousin of ours expiring before the age of 40 to AIDS in the early 90’s. I believed I too might share the same fate if I continued to be gay. It terrified me, let alone the fear of a hell my pastor told me awaited me when this earthly hell was over.
There is an old-adage, "As a man thinketh, so is he." Had I not dispelled for myself these myths early on and began hoping for a better life as a gay man, I shudder to think of what my life might be like now at age 30, believing I have only 10 more years to live. Would I be concerned about getting tested, regularly and often? Would protected sex be just a matter of sex period, or would it be an option or disregarded altogether for the thrill? Would I still work hard to keep my body in shape and eat the right foods as if I’m trying to live pass age 90? And would I steer clear of any recreational drugs whatsoever, Crystal Meth or whatever which is widely abused among my peers? Would I be screwing my brains out with anyone who wanted me without the care of wanting to develop a deep, meaningful relationship with those who are qualified?
What saved me? Television saved me. For the first time about the beginning of the millennium as a young man, I began to see positive examples of gay men in the media. I saw those even who look like me, leading healthy, decent and productive lives with gainful and respectable careers, great friends and loving partners. I began to want that for myself once I believed that I too could have that. My aspirations, expectations and standards in life automatically heightened. These were not the feckless, one-dimensional, cartoonish and flaming caricatures who were always the stereotypical hairdresser I failed to identify with. These were not the tragic and sad stories about single young men wasting away to AIDS in the prime of their youth. We must then begin to beg the question if these unhealthy disparities found amongst the LGBT population have their roots and initial causes in a society which has long refused to acknowledge us, to affirm us, to teach us that our deepest yearnings for romantic love with those of the same gender are not disgusting. It is valid, natural and has real meaning, beauty and value for the rest of the world which so needs stories about those who are fighting to love each other. I believe our story to be an inspiration for marriage itself, while many others have taken their marriages for granted with skyrocketing divorce rates. This is what I’m fighting to undo. I believe once more LGBT couples are allowed to solemnize their relationships openly under the protections of the law, more young LGBT lives will be saved and have brighter prospects for their lives and healthier concepts of their identity as LGBT people. Love heals. Discrimination kills.
Why then are the hopes of the LGBTQIAP; the "Community of Diverse Gender-Based Sexualities" in Georgia situated upon developments with the federal government and states in which we do not lie our heads and pay our taxes to? The answers I have been given is simply that this is the Bible Belt. It's harder to fight here. These things may be true, but does that excuse us from doing the hard work here to assert justice over inequality? Are we then helpless in Georgia and must allow our state to treat us anyway they see fit without challenge? We are helpless, if we believe ourselves to be so. No one can help us so long as we keep this mindset. Are we to expect progress without struggle? Harvest without plowing and sowing? Or maybe we are expecting strength and fitness by letting others workout and diet for us. The federal government will do what it will and our power to sway its outcome pales in comparison to our power to demand and require justice in our own home state. In the same way that it is the states which elect our President, not the individual, it is the will of the states which sway the federal government. To those who are hoping for the almighty federal government to ride in and rescue us from our Bible Belt oppressors must understand that we have to do our part where we are in order to mandate such a move. Focus on Georgia and then the federal government will respond.
I believe that wherever a fight is most difficult is exactly where the fight should be directly taken to. In 1955, Alabama was known as the Cradle of the Confederacy. That did not deter one middle-aged gentle lady from sitting down on a segregated bus and dare to be moved from her seat of choice. Her solitary act of defiant courage inaugurated the African American Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's. When the Civil War was gridlocked in the Upsouth of Virginia, General William Tecumseh Sherman dared to go deep into the heart of enemy territory. He came straightway to Georgia and choked the Confederacy of its lines of communications and resources to fight which were coming out of its hub, which was Atlanta. Sometimes in order to bring down a beast, you have to go directly for the jugular and Georgia has had a long history as being at the epicenter of the beast of antigay legislation on the national stage. Be mindful our Congressman, Bob Barr authored The Defense of Marriage Act. Our Senator, Sam Nunn was one of the strongest supporters of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Our own Newt Gingrich of Cobb County was Speaker of the House when both laws came into being and was an outspoken advocate. Being that the Defense of Marriage Act was born from Georgia, makes where we are a perfect battleground for this issue even on the national level. People in states like Missouri are looking to us to get moving where we can have the most impact, and that is our own state.
Being that this is the Buckle of the Bible Belt and the fight will be most difficult here, we can not afford to go about this soft, whiney, weak or ineffectual and adopt a slouching victim's posture and a beggar’s voice. No, we must take up this fight with much more poised and bold assertion, dignity, confidence and direct determination than has yet to be seen even on the national stage. We can be a people so decidedly free and so decidedly possessed with love and truth that all who witness our iron-willed march will clap for us, not cry for us. For as we liberate ourselves, we will automatically give others permission and inspiration to do the same. This will reverberate and resonate throughout the pool of human spirit across all boundaries even to our opponents to shake even their conscience to the core. Either the conservative bible thumpers are right and we should then shut up and have a seat forever about all things considered gay, or they are mistaken and there is something else more righteous, enduring and true. The enduring principles of love and equality are calling for leaders at such a time as this to take a firm open stand and dare to be moved or silenced. If we are right, then we don't need to go the roundabout route, sneakingly nitpicking at singular rights as we can get them to finally to get to what we were owed at birth.
It is high time to short circuit and shut down the whole operation of discrimination against our community once and for all and no fight will accomplish this more effectively than a fight for marriage equality which is rightly the third rail and support beam to all anti-gay legislations. This is because marriage itself would be the crowning legal acknowledgement and affirmation to the quintessential idea of what it means to be lesbian or gay, bisexual or transgendered. Our opponents know this and that’s why they will fight us tooth and nail. But we must be tougher, stronger and more love-spirited than their mean-spiritedness. While we beg for workplace equality and housing protections against discrimination, they already know and fear that one day we will want marriage too and we will soon enough come to demand that as well. If we hope to engender their respect, why not then be open, upfront and honest about this? Unless we are ashamed and wrong for wanting to marry, I don’t understand the present tactic to insult the intelligence of our opponents by covertly aiming to gradually erode their resistance one law at a time. This then puts us in the position of a thief, trying to pilfer their consent while we believe that they don’t see and understand what we are doing. No one likes or respects a thief, even if they are coming to steal a whiff of air in your house while you’re not looking. This is why they call it the “Gay Agenda”. Not that we don’t have an agenda, which is equality, but that the term connotes conniving ulterior motives which their wild imaginations can then run away with and cause people to fear and resist our advances. Let me make this plain. Until we have marriage, our conservative opponents will always have the upperhand. We will always play by their rules and on their terms. Until we erect our postures, look them directly in the eyes and put steel in our voices and gold rings on the fingers of those we love, we will always wrestle with our state from the submissive and weak position of those who are different, of an alternative lifestyle and that of a second-class citizen. Once we are able to protect our families as equal under the law, I tell you the truth, it will be like the crumbling of the walls of Jericho on all issues like workplace and housing discrimination, for all families have need of these resources. But we must first get recognized as families.
Dr. Phil McGraw has often asserted that we are in large part responsible for the treatment that we receive. He states that we often have to teach people how to treat us. How else did the legislators of Georgia come up with the notion that it is okay and safe to do this to us when legislators of similar attitudes in other parts of this country are very cautious about openly antagonizing the LGBT community? Up until now, many in our communities have been more cautious than courageous in setting the fair boundaries of what we will and will not accept as a free people. But then, how can we call ourselves a free people when we have allowed our state to come to this position? If a person has within himself the soul of a slave, will he not become one, no matter what his station at birth even as water seeks its level? If a person has within himself the soul of a free person, will he not become respected and honored wherever he goes in spite of his misfortune as cream always rises to the top? Does not a great King fight his enemies in every way that he can, with every force that he has? The beauty of America is that though we are a nation with no king, we are nation of equal kings and queens with rights to rule over our own destinies as we see fit.
Frederick Douglass argued to his people, “The general sentiment of mankind is that a man who will not fight for himself, when he has the means of doing so, is not worth being fought for by others, and this sentiment is just. For a man who does not value freedom for himself will never value it for others, or put himself to any inconvenience to gain it for others. Such a man, the world says, may lie down until he has sense enough to stand up. It is useless and cruel to put a man on his legs, if the next moment his head is to be brought against a curbstone.
A man of that type will never lay the world under any obligation to him, but will be a moral pauper, a drag on the wheels of society, and if he too be identified with a peculiar variety of the race he will entail disgrace upon his race as well as upon himself. The world in which we live is very accommodating to all sorts of people. It will cooperate with them in any measure which they propose; it will help those who earnestly help themselves, and will hinder those who hinder themselves. It is very polite, and never offers its services unasked. Its favors to individuals are measured by an unerring principle in this—viz., respect those who respect themselves, and despise those who despise themselves. It is not within the power of unaided human nature to persevere in pitying a people who are insensible to their own wrongs and indifferent to the attainment of their own rights. The poet was as true to common sense as to poetry when he said, ‘Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.”
((Conclusion of FORWARD MARCH! Now Available. In the meantime, we look forward to honoring Mrs. Rosa Parks on her 100th Birthday, Monday February 4th, 2013.))