I have to take this opportunity to mention another “FCK-er” who is standing up against hate with me.
Sarah Shulman has made a mission of stopping the use of the phrase “That’s soo gay!” in everyday conversation. She is an advocate of the same humanity I have been writing about on this blog. She understands the importance of words and their meanings and offers an interesting perspective on the serious and often overlooked issue of (un)intentional gay bashing. I applaud her efforts and am appreciative that there is another voice actively pushing for change. Check out her blog! NOW!
Keeping on with the theme of doing what is right even when you are in the minority, this image should serve as a reminder that just because other people are doing it doesn’t make it right. As children we are taught this concept, but somewhere along the way to adulthood certain people loose this basic concept of standing up for what is right and not what is accepted. Continually speaking out against a majority that embraces a selective equality for the citizens of California is the only way the mission of this blog will be realized. This fight is in no way over but I will continue to work towards winning it until change has been made. Feel free to FCK social injustice with me and rise above the pressure to conform. Know what you feel is right in your bones and ACT. Have a voice and have a heart.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, do you want to FCKH8 with the rest of us?
A classmate of mine Amanda Vo, reintroduced me to this video in a comment on my previous post about the NOH8 Campaign.
While I understand that this campaign might be offensive to some, I appreciate the honesty and the passion that is so apparent in each person involved in this video. Some are members of the the community, some are straight, some are young, and some old, but the common thread they all share is an unwavering desire to gain equality for everyone. The face of gay rights is not just flamboyant activists fighting for their own rights in a “Sodomobile”, rather the face is an entire community of supporters from all walks of life. We are all sons or daughters, mothers or fathers, boyfriends or girlfriends, friends or family, but more importantly than these definitive labels WE ARE HUMAN.
Everyone who has ever loved another person or cause deeply can relate to the raw emotional content presented in these videos.
Cheif Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, have you ever felt love like this?
Please understand the Michael Moore is making a statement through capitalizes on the sterotypes that many staunch conservatives have about the LGBT community. His style is intended to offend, to make a point about the idiocracy of groups like the Westboro Baptist Church whose purpose is to discriminate against individuals who do not hold the same beliefs they do.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the disgusting protests that the Westboro Baptist Church engages in, this video serves as a brief introduction into the truly horrific acts of indecency that this organization involves itself in. From protesting funerals of AIDS victims and soldiers, to preaching a doctrine of hate to its children, Westboro Baptist Church is the epitome of intolerance in the modern world.
By continuing to deny the rights of memebers of the LGBT community in California, our state is not only validating their actions, but encouraging them to continue. The more states that stand up and support gay individuals, the less power this terrorist group holds.
I understand that the Westboro Baptist Church is entitled to their own freedoms as American citizens, but it seems strange to me that groups like this are allowed the right to get married, have children, and breed a longstanding legacy of hate for future generations to carry on when there are hundreds of thousands of people in a community whose entire message is to support love being denied these fundamental civil rights.
Cheif Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, should the Westbro Baptist Church be encouraged to engage in acts of gay bashing because our state will not support all of its citizens by allowing them the right to marry?
My sophomore year of college I took a course called Intro to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Studies with Coralin Glerum, one of the members of the LGBT community who inspired this blog.
In the first few days of the course we spent time trying to understand and identify with the different prejudice faced by members of the community. For example, each student had to tell their own “coming out” story about a significant/vulnerable aspect of their life that others may not know about. My “coming out” story was about the domestic abuse I faced growing up, for others it was about battling disease, overcoming obstacles to achieve success, and even actual coming out stories about sexuality. Everyone immediately had a common experience to bond over. Regardless of whether or not we supported or disagreed with the life choices others had made, or related to what they had been through, we all understood what it felt like to feel vulnerable for something that was simply a part of who we were.
Another powerful exercise we took part in was the assignment of gender boxes. Essentially we outlined stereotypical “boxes” that each gender (male or female) is expected to fall into.
Once we had stereotyped girl versus boy or woman versus man and saw that many of the things that were expected of our respective gender roles in society were not true to us, it was easier to understand that just because the “box” might say man and woman is “right”, the individual might feel that man and man or woman and woman is right.
I encourage readers to partake in either one of these exercises to gain a better understanding of what it feels like to be different from the expectations that society has built for men and women.
I am a woman. I have long hair and breasts. I hate the color pink. I curse like a sailor and am more comfortable in pants than skirts. I don’t sit with my legs crossed. I love to dance. I love my family. I think like a man in most aspects of my life (call it “penis mentality” if you will). I am a straight woman. I am an artist. I am an aunt, a daughter, a lover. I am me, an individual, and I am completely unapologetic for it.
I want this feeling for everyone. A feeling of love, support, and equality. Complete comfortability in their own skin and support from the community at large for embracing their individuality.
Cheif Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, think outside of the box, and encourage your fellow justices to do the same.
Idioms are another hiccup of the English language. “Which team do you bat for?” happens to be one of the most immediate that comes to mind when referring to someone’s sexual preference.
Who says people have to bat for the traditional “teams” (man and woman) that society has constructed? And who says people have to bat for just one team (bisexuality is fine by me)? Why do limitations have to be placed on gender roles in the year 2011?
Please consider taking this poll to support the team you bat for: Pro-same-sex marriage or Anti-same-sex marriage.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, will you bat on my team for the equal rights of every California citizen?
Gay people can get married in California. Shocking, but true.
A gay man can marry a straight woman. A lesbian woman can marry a straight man. And a gay man and a lesbian woman can marry one another.
Some may find this argument to be elementary or even foolish, and others may find it to be clever commentary on the California legal system, but regardless of what your opinions is, please recognize that this argument is used as a defense against the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Technically, the right to marry is legal for California citizens who identify as members of the LGBT community. The injustice of the law is that they cannot marry another member of the community who checks the same box for gender on paperwork.
Differentiating between gay and same-sex marriage is a crucial part of making equality for all a reality in California. Making the linguistic distinction between gay and same-sex gives certain freedom to the community that it desperately needs. Instead of being trapped behind the stigmas that are attached to the word gay, referring to “gay marriage” as “same-sex marriage” allows the LGBT community to attain an honest definition of exactly the right they are fighting for, unmasked by stereotypes and preconceived notions.
Understanding the language of an argument is the first step toward winning it. So I want to make it clear to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and her fellow associate justices what I am in support of:
I want people who are in love, ready for marriage and of the same-sex to have a right to marry.
Again, I realize that this may seem like an offbeat argument to make, but my goal is to provide an alternative perspective on a frequently debated issues of social injustice and fight for equality for all.
Many of my readers have expressed a desire to more clearly understand the change I wish to make through postings on this blog. The Aboutpage provides a brief description of what my intentions are, but this post is designed to help both the readers and my change agent “get it straight”.
Meet Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye of the Califonia Supreme Court. She is the first Filipino Cheif Justice of California as well as the second woman in nearly 150 years to hold the position. Her post marks the first time that the California Supreme Court has had a female majority.
Cantil-Sakauye recalls “the opportunities she has been afforded” in the video above, opportunities that helped her achieve a level of respect and equality in California as a minority, opportunities that her fellow Californians in the LGBT community are not currently presented. She mentions that the public can count on her to “look and learn from the past, and to address the immeadiate needs and priorites of the present and to plan and prepare for the future,” durning her 12 year term as Chief Justice.
Equality for all is an immediate need in California. I am a part of the public Cantil-Sakauye promises to serve and I take her claim of looking and learning from the past seriously. We are a young government still learning how to determine what is and is not constitutional. It is obvious that the document drafted for our country over 200 years ago did not detail every situation that a modern public might face. Our founding fathers left room for interpretation so that future leaders would uphold a legacy of opportunity, equality and freedom of choice in America.
The issue of homosexual marriage and it’s legality was not a priority in the governmental foundations of America. Today though, it is a priority and a responsibility of the leaders who decide what is and is not constitutional to look at through learned eyes. Our nation imposed the same discrimination faced by the LGBT community on females less than 100 years ago by not allowing them to vote for no other reason than their anatomy. More recently, just over 50 years ago, African Americans were still segregated from the white public for no other reason than the color of their skin. These injustices seem foolish today, but the irony is we are still allowing foolish injustices like these to happen.
Take all of the religious and political agendas out of the issue and look at it logically. A person who makes choice Ais allowed the right to marry, whereas a person who makes choice B is not allowed to marry. The person who makes choice A holds hands with a man, kisses a man, has sex with a man, but most importantly loves and wants the right to have a life long commitment to that man. The person who makes choice B holds hands with a man, kisses a man, has sex with a man, but most importantly loves and wants the right to have a life long commitment to that man. The person who makes choice A is a woman, and the person who makes choice B is a man. As far as I can tell, the only thing that differentiates person A and person B is which way they use the bathroom.
Discriminating against person B seems eerily similar to the discrimination against women in the early 1900s and African Americans in the 1950s and 60s. By looking and learning from the past, as Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has promised to do, change can be made for a more positive future.
The NOH8 Campaign was started by photographer Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley in response to the passage of Proposition 8, a measure that added an amendment to the California Constitution recognizing only marriages between a man and a woman, back in 2008.
Californians of all sorts, celebrities, politicians, artists, gay people, straight people, everyday people, have engaged in this silent protest by posing for NOH8 signature photographs. For people who are unfamiliar with the NOH8 Campaign, this video gives a succinct description of the co-founder’s overall message.
The concept is simple, but the statement is profound. Love is universal.
Two of the most significant people in my life are members of the LGBT community.
My best friend and fellow Chapman student Zak Schlegel is one of the kindest, most intelligent, and artistically profound human beings I have encountered in my life. I aspire to have an ounce of the humanity that he embodies. What is tragic though, is that if I did embody all of the exact characteristics that my best friend Zak does, his kindness, intelligence, creative capacity, and humanity, I would be able to do so without being called a faggot, homo, or queer. Without being told that my love and my humanity didn’t count for as much as the “normal” and “righteous” people of the world.
The other significant person who inspired me to blog about this topic was a woman by the name of Coralin Glerum. She is the most influential teacher I have had in my educational experience. She is a Chapman faculty member. She is a lover of sports and a California native. She has blonde hair, a house in Orange, and a white picket fence. She is a lesbian. Coralin and I formed a bound during her Intro to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Studies class last interterm. She taught me how to more effectively communicate my feelings about the injustice brought upon the community and to actively express my opinions about a need for social justice in a way that would have me listened to and not just heard. She always joked that her students didn’t have to go out and be activists, but I hope she knows she inspired me to do just that.
Even though I do not identify as a member of the LGBT myself, I grew up as a competitive dancer in a world full of mentors, teachers, role models, and friends who did identify as such. I am deeply connected to and passionate about this issue for the simple fact that it affects people I love. My purpose is not to offend or preach about this issue, but rather to offer a perspective that others may not have considered.
Let's Get It Gay 