Sunday, November 8, 2009

Gay Rights: Fighting For What's Right


Welcome back to DishThis!, a place where as always...ANYTHING goes.

This installment will be strictly focused on the recent overturning of Maine's same-sex marriage law this week. A crushing blow to gay rights activists and all that support our cause, but it is by no means slowing us down from moving forward and continuing our fight for equality.

'Stand For Marriage Maine' is the leading organization fighting the legalization of same-sex marriage via their support of 'Yes on 1'. Spokeswoman Mary Conroy said "I feel overjoyed for the family and the people of Maine" in reaction to the official announcement that their so called "cause" had in fact been triumphant. The majority of their arguments throughout their campaigning were concerns that children would begin learning about gay marriage and relationships in the education system. Conroy went as far as to say that should Maine's youth begin to read stories with same-sex themes in schools, it would encourage teenagers to experiment with their sexuality, with an increased possible outcome of homosexual marriage becoming a widespread reality.

Is it just me, or is this utterly ridiculous? First of all, it is disgusting that anyone would feel content and proud just moments after crushing the dreams of an entire community. You and your organization raised about what, 2.5 million dollars give or take, and for what? To simply take away the rights of your fellow neighbors, and quite possibly your closeted friends who don't want you to 86 them from your life. You're absolutely right, you should be proud to have raised such an immense amount of money for such a worthy cause. I mean it's not like we have to worry about raising money for researching Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Autism, Alzheimer's or any of the other types of illnesses and disorders out there!

Mary Conroy went on to say that the 'Stand For Marriage' supporters are ordinary people with families, and that lesbians and gays have already won anti-discrimination laws and that we should "leave marriage alone."

Seriously, are you really telling us not only what to do but how we should feel? As if laws put in place to simply protect us from being judged on who we are is some sort of consolation prize! We are just like everyone else, when are you and the rest of the narrow-minded hatemongers going to realize that what we do in our private lives has NOTHING whatsoever to do with you or your children!!! You claim that if homosexuals have the right to marry, it will somehow destroy the family unit and create some type of wave of sexual experimentation in teenagers? Hey newsflash, being a teenager has always been about experimenting! Alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, sex (gay, straight, bisexual), the list goes on with what people do at that age. It's called getting to know yourself inside and out, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Clearly you'd prefer that we have today's youth and future generations live life as a type of 'Stepford' community where everything is uniform and nobody differentiates from what you consider to be the "norm" of society. Sorry but this is not going to happen, we aren't going anywhere and we most definitely have no intention on settling for anything less than what is rightfully ours.

I say to you Mary Conroy and to all those just like you, to leave us alone and allow us to live a life of freedom just as you can. Stop spreading hatred in a world that already has an abundance of it, and start spreading a message of love instead. Love and equality is worth more in the end and will be respected, whereas hate has no place and will be stomped into the ground!

DishThis!