President Obama has declared Gay Pride Month in America. He said:
we recognize that LGBT rights are human rightsand
No one should be harmed because of who they are or who they love
Oh yes.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Gay Pride Month
President Obama has declared Gay Pride Month in America. He said:
Oh yes.
25 COMMENTS:
Closets are for clothes!
This is awesome. The longer he's president, the more proud I am.
Yay!!!! Yes we can (be nice to each other!)!! Take care
x
Lily, as long as we make it safe for everyone to leave their closets!
stacy, you can be proud with good reason. I'm glad he's doing this: what America does has a huge influence over here.
Kitty, you're always nice to everyone!
In North Texas, we've always celebrated Gay Pride in June. Nice to have it officially sanctioned.
Not so nice is that North Texas is staunchly conservative. A neighbor once asked conspiratorially if I wouldn't want to know who in the area was 'homosexual' so I could stay clear of 'them.' (Note the male neighbor in question had a reputation of violence toward women!) I smiled. The man was clueless that he had at least 7 neighbors in a short radius who were gay. And he hobknobbed with at least 3 of 'them' regularly without even knowing it.
It's been a long battle since Stonewall here in the States. This recognition is a great step toward validation of equal rights. It'll be interesting to see the follow-through. Hoping it DOES have international consequence...
Obama has been doing well lately!
Btw, Fairyhedgehog, I have moved. Click on my profile to find me.
SX
Phoenix, it saddens me to hear that sort of prejudice but at least our legals system doesn't support it now. Small steps!
Miss S, I'd noticed you'd moved and I'm following your blog in Blogbridge. I haven't had anything sensible to say yet but never mind, I'll pop in and say hi anyway!
Wow. Really? I hadn't seen that yet. Thanks for the heads up.
I sent him a letter recently pointing out that his parents' marriage was against the law in some of the states at the time but they didn't have to deal with federally sanctioned discrimination. They were married both in their home state and federally no matter what some of the other states had to say on it.
Sarah, it seems like he's listening!
And about time too!
Now, let's work on encouraging the ripples to spread.
Sooner or later, love will find a way...
Richard, agreed!
I always greet news like this with mixed feeling because the republicans are sooooo good at getting into the White House and demolishing every positive thing the People With Brains have come up with while they were away. Let's hope it sticks. :)
M(R)p, I really hope it sticks too!
Somebody really needs to rework "Alice's Restaurant" along this theme.
The sort of movement involving just a couple of people, then another, then another, then another is very hard to break down no matter who comes into power.
If there's ever a conflict between "what's right" and "what's legal" there's a good case to be made for mass open defiance if necessary... and short of shooting every right-minded person in the country there isn't an iota a future republican president could do about it.
I think things are moving in that direction, Richard. The problem with that scenario is that many, many people suffer in the meantime.
Phoenix, what you describe is pretty much the reason I just don't want neighbors when I finally buy a house.
Stacy - although I'm straight myself, probably over 50% of my friends online are LGBT so I'm painfully aware of the difficulties that can arise even within supposedly enlightened countries, let alone the ones where they're barely starting down this road.
There's a lot of work still to do, but it has to start somewhere and we can't just wait for somebody else to do something about it - we've got to get off our collective ass and take those rights if they're not being given freely.
There will be resistance from some people who just can't get their head around it and there's no escaping the fact - just a some people oppose the idea of racial equality, or women being any more than domestic appliances - some minds are so closed you couldn't change them with a hammer.
That doesn't mean we should submit to their will for the sake of an easy life.
I'd much rather die fighting for freedom than live in peace in a cage.
Richard, I had to google "Alice's Restaurant". Civil disobedience is always an option when the law is unfair or just plain wrong but it does take courage which I'm not always sure I've got - like the Twitterers who retweeted the bomb joke to make a point, whereas I just put a slogan on my avatar.
Stacy, at least things are moving, if too slowly. When I compare life now with how I grew up, there are a lot of prejudices that are less prominent now or at least not enshrined in law. But I can understand you not wanting to be surrounded by offensive people.
Richard, I grew up in a society that saw women as little more than domestic appliances (I love how you put that) so I really appreciate the changes that have taken place. I'm not sure I'd be willing to die for freedom though even though I feel I should be.
FH - you say you're not sure you'd be willing to stand up...
You have a line. Everybody has a line - and you'll know when it's been crossed because you'll get a red mist and not care whether you live or die as long as you right that wrong.
The prejudice and hate is within the limits you're willing to tolerate at the moment - it's not yet reached the point it makes you angry enough.
You are the exact target audience for this movement... we need to reduce this tolerance of injustice, and encourage people to be angry about it - because that's what's needed for grass-roots change to happen.
Years ago, you were Spartacus - I still am... if that's more than you can cope with now, then you can still help the fight - you can knit me a really scary-looking balaclava for the front line. ;-)
Richard, I'm sure you're right. If one of my sons was being harmed I'd be right there regardless of my own safety. But for now I'll knit balaclavas. My knitting is in fact scary but for all the wrong reasons!
Richard, I'm not sure you understood my point. My point was actually the point you eventually made: We can't wait for things to change by themselves. That's what I meant when I said that many, many people suffer in the meantime. Too many people suffer when the majority of folk let a few do the heavy lifting.
But Fairy posting this is a good thing in and of itself. Otherwise I may have missed it in all the other news I read daily.
stacy, thank you!
Stacy - upon re-reading, I think you're right... it reads completely differently today, even though the words are the same.
Now is probably a good time to share a blog post from another friend of mine - it's based upon a poem and a sermon.
Don't let that put you off... there's more than one sort of prejudice. ;-)
http://croissantneuf.blogspot.com/2011/06/love-it-is-what-it-is.html
Nice poem, Richard. My daughter-in-law and I use the phrase "it is what it is" a lot!
Yay for Obama. It's a small step, maybe, but at least it's in the right direction.
Simon, agreed!
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