personal politics...

can you imagine being told how you should lead your life? can you imagine being told the way you feel is due to a sickness, that you're not normal and that you cannot enter life as you wish? can you imagine being ostracized for walking down the street with your lover simply because you share the same gender?

in 1978 the gay rights movement lost a leader -- harvey milk... he was assassinated after fighting the good fight for just shy of a year in public office and a handful of years previous to that... as the first openly gay male in san francisco's board of supervisors, he stood for what he believed in and became a shining light for all of those that felt they had to hide who they were... he encouraged everyone to "come out" and join forces to show that sexuality does not change the fact that we are all human beings...

fast forward to 2009... controversy strikes the miss america pageant (of all places) due to a question posed by openly gay blogger, perez hilton... miss california rhymes off her answer, stating that her belief is that marriage is strictly a union between a man and a woman... perhaps the most unfortunate thing about the situation is not her answer -- honesty should be valued, even in a beauty rather than brawn circumstance... perhaps the most unfortunate part of it all is that miss california is not alone in her stance...

it's not to say that all mr. milk fought for over 20 years ago has been lost... but it is to say that there is still a long way to go... i shake my head in such disbelief because i can't fathom why society looks down its nose at difference... how does homosexuality strike ill in my life? it doesn't... then why must public figures decide what they can and cannot do? who are they to judge?

my love said to me last night that he doesn't understand the "big deal" behind marriage... why is a piece of paper necessary? and therefore he questioned why it's such a "big deal" that homosexuals are not able to partake in matrimony... while i could see where his concept was stemming from, we need to step back and think about how it feels to be told you cannot participate in your life as you wish... how it feels to be told that you are different and therefore not welcome to be legally bound to the one you love if you choose to do so...

sure, at 26 i often feel like we've come so far... i feel like i access many forms of freedom on a daily basis and i luckily live my life with few boundaries... however, it boggles my mind to think that we still think we know all the answers... that we fear sexuality, the colour of people's skin, differences in culture, differences in belief... suppressing one another is no way to live our lives...

"the important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it." - harvey milk