November 4, 2008, is a day Americans will remember for a long time. America elected Barak Obama, a black man, as its 44th president. This is a victory for our country in so many ways, not the least of which is a victory over racism. By electing Obama, we’ve said that the color of a person’s skin makes no difference. In America, a person of color can do anything a white man can do.
And while this is certainly an occasion worth celebrating, November 4, 2008, was also a sad day for me. Because while America as a whole made a wonderful choice, smaller groups of Americans made decisions that are very upsetting and disheartening to me. In Arkansas, it is now illegal for gay couples to adopt or foster children, thanks to 57% of voters in that state. Because of the decision of these narrow-minded individuals, thousands of people will be denied the right to be parents, they will be denied joy of loving and nurturing a child. And even sadder: thousands of children will be denied the chance to live in warm, loving homes with devoted and caring parents. It makes me speechless just thinking about it.
In California, voters took away gay couples’ right to marry. How does something like that even get on a ballot!? I don’t understand how or why, in a “free” country like America, we think we have the right to decide who can and can’t get married. Two people love each and want to spend their life together as partners. What more is there to decide?
We spend billions of dollars on war and watch thousands people die or become maimed for life. We hear about bombings, of prisoners of war being tortured, of parents losing their young sons of daughters while fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. And in the midst of all this horror and blood shed, we deny people the right to be married, to legally commit to the person they love, and to raise a family. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
3 comments:
Actually, I believe the Arkansas bill said nothing about gay couples directly, but rather placed a blanket ban on unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting or fostering children. It's horrible and does nothing but hurt people.
I think it's a shame that we've come so far in terms of anti-racism, but we as a country can't apply the lessons we learned along the way to other minority classes.
Have you seen these two links? They were sent out on the Olympia PFLAG mailing list.
Great links, Erin. Thanks for sharing. I
Post a Comment