National Coming Out Day
Oct. 11th, 2007 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swehToday is National Coming Out Day It's also the 20th anniversary of the "Gay and Lesbian March on Washington" and the unfurling of the "Aids Quilt" on the National Memorial.
Coming out and living openly is the most important thing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight-supportive Americans can do to build lasting understanding and equality.
Gay rights are a big issue these days. Some states allow gay marriage, others have civil unions (including, I'm happy to say, New Jersey), yet others don't recognise it. The "Defense Of Marriage Act" (1996) prevents the federal government from recognising same sex marriage and allows one state to ignore others marriage (overruling the "full faith and credit" clause of the constitution). The US Supreme Court has thus far refused to listen to any constitutional challenges. There have even been proposals to ammend the US constitution itself ("Federal Marriage Ammendment" 2006) to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Fortunately it failed to gain sufficient votes to pass.
And yet: Today, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Americans say they personally know or work with someone who identifies as gay or lesbian, according to Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc.
This means that there must be a fairly large sized proportion of US citizens that are (either openly or closeted) either homosexual or bisexual and these people are being denied rights that other couples have, simply due to sexual orientation.
Gay people are people, just the same as you and me. Their desire to settle and make a home with the person they love is no different to that of any other couple. Their desire to express that love in the form of marriage does not and can not impact your marriage to the person you love. Their desire to gain equal protection under law for their partnership doesn't harm you in any way.
Clearly there is a lot of divided sentiment on Gay Rights and yet there was a lot of sentiment over slavery and segregation, but finally common sense won out there. I can only hope that America comes to its senses and soon!
Coming out and living openly is the most important thing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight-supportive Americans can do to build lasting understanding and equality.
Gay rights are a big issue these days. Some states allow gay marriage, others have civil unions (including, I'm happy to say, New Jersey), yet others don't recognise it. The "Defense Of Marriage Act" (1996) prevents the federal government from recognising same sex marriage and allows one state to ignore others marriage (overruling the "full faith and credit" clause of the constitution). The US Supreme Court has thus far refused to listen to any constitutional challenges. There have even been proposals to ammend the US constitution itself ("Federal Marriage Ammendment" 2006) to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Fortunately it failed to gain sufficient votes to pass.
And yet: Today, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Americans say they personally know or work with someone who identifies as gay or lesbian, according to Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc.
This means that there must be a fairly large sized proportion of US citizens that are (either openly or closeted) either homosexual or bisexual and these people are being denied rights that other couples have, simply due to sexual orientation.
Gay people are people, just the same as you and me. Their desire to settle and make a home with the person they love is no different to that of any other couple. Their desire to express that love in the form of marriage does not and can not impact your marriage to the person you love. Their desire to gain equal protection under law for their partnership doesn't harm you in any way.
Clearly there is a lot of divided sentiment on Gay Rights and yet there was a lot of sentiment over slavery and segregation, but finally common sense won out there. I can only hope that America comes to its senses and soon!
