For my generation, if not for yours.

[Guy Fawkes]

Maybe its because I'm stubborn, but I am completely unwilling to stand by and watch the my rights (and the rights I don't yet have) get washed down the drain by some idiot who believes that all deviation from his 'norm' is evil. The whole thing sounds like World War II to me- and that scares me half to death.

I was still starting to deal with anti-semitism when I started to recognize my sexuality. I found out that it wasn't considered "normal" to like people of the same sex while I was in 7th grade. And then I found the civil rights movement and groups like the (then OK) HRC and the ACLU.

In the 4 short years that I've been witness to this vast community, it seems to be falling apart. No, you don't get things handed to you on a silver platter. Life has never been like that. And fighting for your rights in a country- a world- that doesn't like you is a very hard thing to do. Nevertheless, it is something that must be done.

The GBLT community has lost sight of that. You hold "gay pride" days "for the children," but the only people that show up are 21+ and then they spend the day doing drugs. Good job, show the world how caught up in your own lives you are. You go out and ask for marriage, but how many are willing to fight for it? How many people will get up and scream it from the rooftops- 'I deserve equal rights!'

What do you -the adults and figureheads of the GBLT community- do to change the world's views? About as much as I do, really. I've written letters to politicians, I've whined about it in my blog and my old political cartoons, I'm even the leader of my school's GSA. I read the local newspaper (and many non-local ones) every day. I listen to NPR, I watch the news on TV (even fox!) and I read political commentary by anyone from Ann Coulter to Michael Moore.

What have I learned? People hate gays. They HATE us. Homophobia is everywhere in our schools, even the teachers and administration. Almost all of my friends are homophobic. Doesn't surprise me at all. What does surprise me is that some of these people are considered *liberal* around here. Ha! I make them look less liberal the hitler!

You know what else? For the next two years, it is up to you- the adults of the GBLT community- to make things better. Then I can get up on my mound and give a sermon to lead the masses. Or, I would've been able to, if you hadn't given up.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. History

I don't want to sound like I am "taking you to school," but I do want to point out some things. I agree with your point about many gays not being involved enough in the struggle for equal rights. I will also agree that there are many liberals who are raging homophobes! However....

There have been many gays before you (and me) who have made things to where we can actually discuss them. The fact that you are president of a GSA in HS (I am assuming) is INCREDIBLE!!!! There would have NEVER been something like that when I was in school! The fact that we have lobbyists is a huge improvement. The fact that there are states willing to protect us, even allow us to marry. HUGE STEP!

We have a long way to go!!! You will soon be (actually, you already are) helping pave the road to freedom. But, don't forget you aren't starting out from brick one! We may not be at the 'golden city' but we are well on our way because of those who came before us!

Keep up the fight!

[Guy Fawkes]

2. The problem with history...

is that it has already happened. Yes, there were great people who fought for our rights in the past. But that was the past. Reading the papers recently, it seems to me that the GBLT community has just given up on working toward equal rights. Places like the HRC just sit around and complain when something that they don't like happens. God forbid they do something about it.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. The past is important

The past is our roots. Because we do not belong to an ethnic group, religious group, etc., we lose ourselves sometimes. Being gay comes 2nd, 3rd or further down the line. However, when people think of us (sometimes), being gay is number uno!

I agree with what you said about the HRC (and several other national groups), but it doesn't mean we as individuals can't continue the fight. I also understanding getting 'down' about the state of gay affairs. I remember the first gay pride march I went to. It was about equal rights, freedom, the right to be ourselves AND a great party! Now, it has become more of just a party. Some people just don't care. Young people (no offense) sometimes could care less about gay marriage, because it doesn't affect them now. What we need is an "awakening" in our community. Just because you are young and want to 'date around' (or old and want the same thing), shouldn't mean that you aren't concerned with the rights of those who do want equal marriage rights. I love being gay, and it pains me to say, from my experiences, some of the most selfish people are gays. not all of us. But, there are many who don't care as long as they can party, fuck who they want, when they want, where they want, that is all the "equality" they want. Don't let them (or our enemies) get you down!

Keep up the fight! You are not alone!

on edit: I can't ever use "affect" and "effect" correctly! I am my own grammar nazi!

[MuseRider]

3. This makes me

sad. I doubt it will help you much from this little place in red Kansas but we are taking the fight to them. They started it and we are doing our level best to fight them. Non stop work, non stop phone calling, non stop GOTV planning. I would guess that the majority of the people giving their lives over for this short time are GLBT but I know there are at least 1/4 of us who are not and we are not going to sleep until the mandate comes down on Tuesday. I guess I am tired from a long day of working on this, I just got home and we are all bleary eyed but filled with the excitement of making our statement. I am sorry, I hate that you are being made to feel this way, you are valued and you probably don't need this but for what it is worth we are fighting as hard as we can against the lies and the hate. I am going to post this although I really feel like I should not, I am tired and overly emotional so here it is for what it is worth. We are screaming here. Nobody else is hearing us yet but they will.

http://www.votenomarch1st.org/

If it isn't spun to be unrecognizable I will send you the link to the NY Times article when it comes out. They are paying us some attention but most likely it is only because this was brought on by Fred Phelps. Whatever the reason, we are making some noise and we will not shut up or be quiet about this. If we lose we will continue and be prepared when the time comes that we can fight it again.

[Guy Fawkes]

4. Thank you.

There is no way for me to express my gratitude for you and those others who are still working to make a difference. Thank you.

[MuseRider]

8. There is no reason

to thank me. We are all in this together.

[readmoreoften]

6. TIME TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, KIDDO.

And have some respect.

I am only 34 years old, I grew up in New Jersey and GLBT people were so closeted that I met my first lesbian at 18 and she was 25 years older than me and she lived across the state.

Let me give you a snapshot of non-gay-metropolises in the mid-80s when I was a teen... The issue was not marriage. Gay men were brought on TV talk shows as 'freaks' to be discussed. There were no 'gay-straight alliances' in high schools. There were no 'straights' to be allied with. After school, the boys I knew would go queer bashing. With baseball bats. The best defense we had was straight people who said, "They may be faggots, but at least they're human." The entire SILENCE=DEATH campaign didn't really hit until when? First few years of the 1990s outside New York and San Fran.

We have worked HARD to get where we are and a lot of that 'work' isn't soap box preaching. It's one-on-one conversations. It's being out. It's holding hands in public. It's explaining and explaining and explaining and educating until you're blue in the face. That's the 'activism' that most of us do.

If you're expecting an armed revolution... well, unfortunatley it might happen. But we're not fighting an 'outside race', another community, a foreign invader. We're fighting our mothers, our fathers, our childhood best friends, our grandparents.

There are many queers who won't fight for themselves. Are you surprised? All their lives they've been told they're sick and evil and not trying hard enough to be straight or feminine or masculine. We've fought just to get through the day after being punched and raped and urinated on.

So, yeah, not everyone in the community is exactly emotionally balanced. Some GLBTs have problems with drug use and suicide. Any fucking wonder with what we go through?

So instead of yelling at your elders in the community, why don't you ask them for their experience and hope. Why don't you learn our history... the little of it that survives the book burnings and the grandmothers who throw out our 'filthy memoirs' when we die childless. There's the Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society and the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of gay pride and ACT-UP and QUEER NATION.

And when you learn, then you will teach. And then you will be an adult member of the GLBT community yourself.

No one is giving up. But you have to understand that right now we may be on the verge of a hell of a fight. And we've been through hells of fights before. But this one may be the biggest yet. So let's make each other stronger, not tear each other apart.

Joan of Arc was 14. You can start by being a leader now. Just stand tall and don't give up, okay?

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Well stated, sister.

I can appreciate his frustration, but your post does show some wonderful things we all should be proud of. We have a ways to go, but if it hadn't been those who came before us, we wouldn't be where we are! (See my above posts). I am glad he is here and queer...but, I am also glad we are too! :)

[RickyMonet]

20. Preach on Sister!

Try doing a STOP AIDS Outreach on the streets of your city and you will wakeup to the new rounds of AIDS and meth. After living with this for over 15 years now and watching hundreds of our brother and sister die around me; we have paid our dues.

Take your anger and frustration and turn it into light and energy and make your mark on the world. Inspire those around you to do more not tell them. So many have given their lives yet you don't listen you preach, you must teach and inspire, lead by example!

Peace

[GodlessBiker]

9. "...but the only people that show up are 21+ ...

but the only people that show up are 21+ and then they spend the day doing drugs."


The only people? Fuck you. I go to gay pride day events and I don't do drugs, and neither do the dozens of my friends who I see at these events.


Who the hell are you to lump us all together like that? You are no better than the enemy you claim to want to fight against.

[readmoreoften]

10. Yes, I don't know what pride events you go to

But I've been going since 94, and I've never been drunk or high and neither have my friends. Sounds like you're just hanging with a bad crowd.

[Boomer]

22. Anyone who is younger than 21....

I'd would advise anyone below the age of 21, and especially below the age of 18, to think very seriously before appearing in a gay pride parade. In the area that I live, teenagers run the risk of being thrown out of the house if they come out to their parents. Others would be threatened with psychiatric imprisonment or one of those lovely Christian reorientation camps.

Fighting for gay rights is not an option that is open to everyone. Some run much greater risks than others to even be known as gay, much less engage in political activism.

[mitchtv]

11. that's funny. I have the same complaint about the younger generation

When I grew up Gay bars were routinely raided, whenever some DA was running for reelection. We danced behind black curtains in back rooms (in Gay friendly NYC!)I have marched in picket lines(and ended up in jail-sat in been thrown off anti war Dais' by liberals, no radicals, been mugged spit on and attacked. I'll tell you one thing, I HAVE NO HOMOPHOBIC FRIENDS.
It is time for the youth to get off their lazy compalcent asses and add to what has been done ( a great fuck lot has -ie Lawrence V texas) Your generation takes a whole lot for granted. and I refused to be lectured on gay rights until you spend a night or two in jail.


*Ps I was getting in bars at 15; drinking age was 18

[GodlessBiker]

12. Thank you for your efforts

so that I don't have to worry about being arrested when I go to a gay bar.

[readmoreoften]

13. yes thank you, mitch

thanks for making the world a slightly safer place for me to come out in during the early 90s and I promise to honor your achievements by carrying and then passing the torch.

[readmoreoften]

14. That's another thing...age

Generally it seems that throughout the 20th century, if you were old enough to know you're gay and get into a club, you were welcomed into the community as a responsible (albeit young) community member.

Now everyone's a 'child' until they're 24 years old. (I've taught college and I've heard straight profs debate that if a professor dates a college age student they're a 'pedophile'... not 'unethical', mind you, but a 'pedophile'.) So we've got a generation of young adults who think they are still children and the world is their parent.

We don't have the luxury to be as complacent and childish until 25 because we have a responsibility to fight.

[dsc]

15. pedeophile is a strong word

but they are highly unethical. I would never date a student under any circumstances.

[Bellamia]

16. Not ALL people hate gays.............

they just see them as "different" from themselves, not wrong, not sinful, lordy me, not evil, just different. I guess we are in the minority that see ANY "other" as just a human being doing the best he/she can, hoping for love and happiness, just like us.

[Uncle Roy]

17. "Almost all of my friends are homophobic."

While you are waiting for "the adults and figureheads of the GBLT community <... > to change the world's views", you might try working on your friends.

Soap boxes and speeches and organizations and letters to the editor and blog rants are all fine, and have their place, and you deserve credit for being active in that way, but if you really want to change the world, work on your family and friends. They ARE the world, alas...

And no one can do this for you.

Hint: do it quietly, in private, one friend at a time. A big part of "homophobic" is "phobic". A lot of straights (young guys especially) wouldn't be so bad except they are afraid that other people might think that THEY are queer, so "the laddies doth protest too much", because they are trying to prove something. If you understand that dynamic, you have a chance to get through to them.

Best wishes...

[mitchtv]

18. Welcome to DU, Uncle Roy

Truer words were never spoken.Coming out is THE political act. If every gay came out, there would be less discrimination.

[RickyMonet]

19. Very well said and I agree... We are in it for the fight now!

When you have clarity and fervent desire for truth, when you ask for assistance, you create an opening for the Light to come, and the Light will complete all the actions we cannot.

[xchrom]

21. before stonewall, we were not a community.

community and gay folk are very new.
most of our history is about individuals living in isolation from each other.
and that tradition is still with us.

remember -- for most of our{contemporary} history we didn't even have family to bring with us into our functioning adult lives.

considering, we do remarkably well -- and i'm also reminded -- the other side has a responsibility to mature, and behave like educated, civilized beings.