Thoughts on Prop 8
Friday Nov 07, 2008
The following is - to be perfectly clear - an expression of my own thoughts and opinions, and does not in any way represent any official Sun policy or position.
I know I haven't posted anything for some time now, and I doubt many people will see this outside of the RSS crowd. I originally created this blog to talk about my experiences with being a transgender employee - and going through gender transition on the job - at Sun. Well, that has proved to be a non-issue, because everything went just fine and dandy. Lucky me. 
I have something to write about now, though, as I was very much involved - both financially and through volunteering - in the fight against California's Prop 8. The text below captures some of my current thinking about the outcome, and about what happens next.
Like many in the LGBT community - both in California and abroad - I am grieving the results of Prop 8 still. As with every other day since the election, I was sick to my stomach this morning as I prepared to go to work, knowing that specific coworkers- some of whom I have worked with for almost 10 years - had enthusiastically voted to deprive me of my rights. I remain frustrated by the small percentage of voting Californians who claimed to support equality when surveyed by pollsters only to endorse discrimination in the voting booth. And I am angry - deeply and profoundly enraged - about having other people whose lives I have never attempted to control forcing me to obey their religions, about the broken hearts of friends and chosen family whom I love, and about the tears and anguish on my friends' faces as we tried to console and encourage each other during the update meeting at our local LGBT Center.
Yet even as I work through my grief and my righteous fury, I am filled with power and grim determination by the absolute certainty that everything we have done and every sacrifice we have made in our fight for equality will be vindicated soon. The proponents of Prop 8 seem to think that they have won something and that the final battle is over. They are right about this being the final battle, but Prop 8 was only the opening shot. You see, they don't get to decide when this battle is over. We do... and we will not stop until our fundamental, inalienable rights as human beings and citizens of the United States are solidly acknowledged and protected by the laws of our land. We will keep throwing ourselves upon the wall - over and over - and we will not rest until we have won. Try as they may, our opponents cannot stop us, but only slow us down. Our will is great, and they have no true power over us.
When all is said and done, history will look back at them - those who are too full of hatred or fear or prejudice to treat people as equals in spite of their differences - in the same light as those who fought against women's suffrage, civil rights and emancipation. Every day, more and more young adults with genuinely egalitarian principles earn the right to vote, and eventually, those who voted against us out of prejudice or hatred will be bred out of existence. That may take a few generations, but winning over the merely fearful will happen much more quickly, and therein lies the key to success. We have made huge strides over the last 8 years, and have but a short distance further to travel before a majority of our fellow Californians are on our side.
Be out. Be vocal. Be righteous in your anger, but win over those opponents that we can through love, not bitterness. Our victory is both inevitable and near, and we must continue to fight for it through every legitimate channel at our disposal.
The dawn of our day is just around the corner.
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