I was in a politically motivated mood when this was written, and urging the GLBT community to get out and vote. Some did, some didn't, Bush is President. I still want my happy rights.
Happy Rights
A Gay Opinion 10/19/00
by R.A. Melos
Issues! What happened to them?
Oh, those pesky political issues, like what to do about hate crimes, and civil
unions, are still there, they've just been placed out of harms way until all
the mudslinging is over, or at least until after the November elections in the
United States are over.
One of the many issues to be dealt with is that of civil unions. While Vermont
led the nation in forward thinking, many other states are attempting to back
peddle with legislation which will negate the forward steps by disallowing and
disavowing any partnership between parties of the same sex or those who are
not involved in a "traditional" church sanctified union.
I've heard many people lamenting on the morality of same-sex marriage, or as
they see it, the immorality of those unions. The other evening, while listening
to a television talk show, I heard a woman demanding to know when gay stopped
meaning to be happy?
Well, I too would like to know the answer to that question. After all, the right
to love another human being is a universal given, like the right to breath,
whether on not a society recognizes that right. It wasn't all that long ago
when interracial marriages were looked on with the same disdain as today's same-sex
unions. Now politicians long for the days when an issue was easily identified
by the color of one's skin.
It was so much easier to deny someone their rights if they looked different
from you, but now we all look the same, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers,
husbands, all are separated by an invisible genetic code which can only be seen
through a microscope, and is even there unidentifiable.
The Religious Right argues the Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve theory. Big
deal! So if your only choice at the video store was Waterworld, Kevin Costner
would've made a fortune. If Adam had been placed with Steve, although I doubt
he would've been named Steve, probably something like Jebhar or Seberoth, then
we wouldn't be arguing this theory at all.
What I really want to know, isn't what happened to Gay Rights, but what happened
to my right to be happy? I'm not talking about conforming to someone else's
version of what should make me happy, but my right to be happy as I see fit
to be happy?
Don't tell me it isn't what God wanted, because God made me and I want the happiness
God made me to pursue. I also don't want to here about society being uncomfortable
with me, because I really don't give a rat's tail about what makes others uncomfortable.
I've heard the so-call "gay self-defense" theory, and I don't buy
it. If a person is so completely insecure with their own sexuality to think
by being perceived as gay, if they truly are not, it could make them gay, so
they must eradicate homosexuals from the face of the planet, then there is something
wrong with that individual not with me.
The "it isn't normal" speech also doesn't wash with me.
Come on, is it normal to brainwash a reasonably intelligent woman into thinking
she is not fulfilled until she squeezes out a child or two? Is it normal to
put pressure on youth to be like their parents? Or to go out and marry and reproduce
because society expects it?
The "it isn't natural" theory is also crap. Just watch any episode
of Jerry Springer and then tell me same-sex unions are worse than most of what
heterosexuals do in pursuit of their happiness.
So where is my right to happiness? Where is my right to meet someone, fall in
love and get married? Where is my right to learn that marriage doesn't solve
all my problems? And my right to flee from a disenchanted union because he's
a jerk, just like my my parents said he was, back when I wasn't listening to
them?
Perhaps the heterosexual society is trying to spare the homosexuals the pain
they themselves suffer each day in their marriages of convenience and lies and
other poor unions? Perhaps the heterosexuals are so benevolent as to help us
beyond the excruciating pain of their own mistakes by denying us the right to
make the same mistakes?
Or possibly, the heterosexuals really are afraid we'll do marriage, as we do
most things, better than the heterosexuals do it. We'll have lasting unions,
without separations and divorce, and failure on financially grade scales?
I doubt all of these things. Heterosexuals have to stop thinking the pursuit
of my happiness lies in the crotch of my potential life partner, and realize
love is in the heart and head. Once I felt I was with someone who would make
me happy for the rest of my life even if we never had sex. How many heterosexuals
can make that claim?
Well, I was happy, and can and will be happy again, with or without the condescending
approval of society. Legality be damned, my ex-lover taught me rules were meant
to be broken, and he may have been right. Too bad he conformed back to societies
will before he broke more of the rules with me, but he's inconsequential.
So what happened to the time when gay meant happy? My answer to this is, gay
still means happy. Heterosexual society is putting forth their best efforts
to take that happiness away through strong-arm tactics, threats, and denial
of rights, and we are still here and stronger for it. There has always been
much more to those of us who dare speak love's name, and now is the time we
got what we want.
I urge all people to come out and vote for the pursuit of your own happiness,
and don't tread on mine. Go to the polls, vote, have a gay old time.