Tragedy Becomes Legacy and Power...

This past October 11^th, 2012 was National Coming Out Day.  While I am not here to tell you I am coming out of the closet, I am here to tell you that I support the GLBTQI community and want their voices to be heard; simply put, I think equal rights for the GLBTQI community should sooner rather than later.  I am including a clip about Matthew Shepard (thanks, JRC) because I think his story has been heard, needs to continue to be heard, and needs to be used as an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNHGb7uaJI&feature=related

For just one second, put your:  religion, thoughts about sexuality being a choice, disgust regarding something you may not know about, and any other thoughts surrounding this tragedy and focus on this one fact:  an innocent young man DIED; his family lost a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin.  And, while you reflect on that fact, I encourage you to put yourself in an uncomfortable position so that you can truly feel what it might be like to not be you.  Picture yourself as a Jewish person being prosecuted in Germany during Hitler’s era simply because of your religion.  Picture yourself as an African-American during slavery being prosecuted simply because of your skin color.  Picture yourself as a Native American being stripped of your land and then forgotten despite your influence on America.  Picture yourself as a woman making less than a man and not really mattering to society circa 1920 (although, women still make less than men in the work force and are still viewed as the weaker sex). 

And then, picture yourself as you in 2012.  And visualize yourself being beaten to death because you had:  a plethora of tattoos.  Various piercings.  Blue hair.  Or because you believed in God.  Buddha.  Muhammed.  The Koran.  The Torah.  The Devil.  Because your mom was white and your dad was African-American or vice versa.  Because you shopped at Goodwill instead of Hollister or vice versa.  Because your grandmother was Pakastani.  Because you were interested in stage-crew, the drama club, or chorus instead of football, cheerleading, and student government.  Because you were shy. Because you earned good grades.  Because you lived in a foster home.  Because you were different.

I believe that love is love is love.  It does not matter if it is heterosexual love, homosexual love, bi-sexual love, trans-gendered love, bi-racial love, young-and-old person love, and everything else in between.  When all is said and done, a person falls in love with a person, not a gender, race, socio-economic status, etc..

And who are we, as a society, to judge or question the validity of what two people feel?

Until next time...

AmyMaze