Tomorrow, I'm going to my first protest/rally, to protest a vote that was made in a state that I don't live in. Which feels futile, and frustrating, but not as futile or as frustrating as it feels outrageous that a state constitution is potentially going to be amended to take away rights that people already had. Florida is disappointing too--and I donated just as much to the No On Prop 2 campaign as I did to No On Prop 8--but California is terrifying.
I think that this will all end sooner rather than later, but now feels like the moment where to stay silent is to agree. We like to do this, in America, this thing where people vote to deny their fellow citizens the same rights that they themselves enjoy. I have a pretty privileged position, being a white heterosexual middle class female, but it wasn't that long ago that people just like me had to fight for the right to vote, and the right to marry men of another color. Everything that feels like a given to me was something that someone else had to work for, and now it's my turn to struggle for the rights of my friends.
All we can do tomorrow is say, "Sorry your neighbors took away the rights your courts gave you, California." We don't have gay marriage in Washington State, either, but we didn't get a chance to vote for it, so I guess we have to start with the places that did.
No comments:
Post a Comment