I've had a lot of food for thought this week...I'm stuffed.
But from all these little pieces...the gay marriage thing, the voting rights act thing, the right to choice thing...I've pulled a common thread, and now I'm running with it.
At what point in human history did we decide that there were just groups of people who, for no good reason, are just not good enough to be treated like everyone else? And when was it ever the right thing for society at large?
Identity is a tricky thing to do. There is a push-pull tension where an individual defines his or her own identity for the world to see, but it may be very contrary to the identity assigned by others.
For instance, I am open about my sexuality, I am a member of a minority ethnic group with a sad voting rights history, and I'm a woman. I'm proud of who I am, who I've become, and how those things have contributed to me being an open, tolerant person, so it's understandable that if I were in the United States, I'd feel completely and totally disoriented about what others want to decide about MY life based on any or all of those three traits. People actually use the things I'm proud of against me, and use them as excuses to make my rights somehow lesser than theirs. Does this mean that these people are also prone to seeing me as a lesser person than they are? Am I less deserving of making my own choices or having my rights protected because I'm bi or Aboriginal or a woman (or some disturbing combination of the three)?
The answer is no. I am a human, like all those around me, and I deserve no less than what they claim.
Get well soon, America...
...Wish you were here.
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