The recent online discussion related to how to weigh a political candidate's personal stance against supporting same sex marriage in the country has acted as a stark reminder of how many still view the LGBT rights cause. Even among supposed liberals, some very conservative or "traditional" views win out, with many arguing that there are "more important" concerns compared to such LGBT rights arguments and that we as a community should give way for the good of the company or whatever.
The implications are always troubling. Far too many times, a lot of people dismiss the calls for same-sex marriage as something akin to a selfish novelty that the LGBT community keeps harping on. That probably says a lot more about their inherent views of marriage if they think it's somehow frivolous for queer people to want the legal rights and protections that come with legal frameworks like marriage. The lack of formal LGBT rights or even basic anti-discrimination laws in this country is a serious ongoing human rights concern that continues to do harm to countless LGBT people in the country.
But it's just another day being part of a minority group in this country - especially since we seem to be safely past the "tolerance" threshold where people can say that things aren't that bad so we should be content that things aren't worse. It's terribly dismissive and probably homophobic on some level, even if not on an actively malicious level or something. Regardless of intent, far too many people are terribly content with just leaving us in the background. Like it's not important for us to continue to make noise in Congress and such. We should just go on living our lives as they are now and never move forward or stick our necks out.
But it's not right. And when something is this important, we also don't have to compromise or be questioned about taking a hard stance. And some of the ridiculous counter "arguments" that ask if the LGBT community would vote for obviously terrible candidates if they supported same sex marriage is insultingly reductive and reinforce the fact that many still see the community as odd second-class citizens. LGBT rights are naturally important to the LGBT community and we are fully within our rights to make it a minimum requirement that the candidates we support also support us in a meaningful way. But it doesn't mean we would vote solely on such issues - but it's probably a non-negotiable at this point. We've waited far too long and the SOGIE bill continues to languish in Congress without meaningful progress and that's just unforgivable.
We deserve better.
Comments
Post a Comment