Watch. Share. Sign the pledge. It’s not too late to fight. Ash and I may not be married (yet), but that doesn’t mean this doesn’t have an impact on us. It physically hurts to know that there are still so many people out there who don’t see us as equals, who don’t see as human beings who deserve the right to be happy and to be ourselves. I cannot fathom it. I cannot understand how the dark ages are still oppressing us.

It’ll change. I know it will. We won’t give up.

On the same note, it’s Blog for Freedom to Marry Week. It’s sad that it’s come to this – where we have to actually spread the word about equal rights for marriage. Shouldn’t it be common knowledge? Shouldn’t it just be a given? Hasn’t it been said over and over again that we as human beings are all equal? So why is it then that we aren’t allowed the same rights? Even though this specific week is called Blog for Freedom to Marry Week, it doesn’t start or end with this week. We have to keep talking about it and sharing our stories and refusing to hide behind the ugly plaid lumberjack shirts in the closet (doesn’t every lesbian have one?). While I’m not married now, someday Ash and I will tie the knot and I hope by that time, we’re doing it legally and with our government’s blessing (honestly, when did it become the government’s decision?).

It’s a big thing, this whole marriage deal. Should it be? For the couple yes. But it shouldn’t be a big deal, at least in the negative sense, when two men or two women say their vows to each other and kiss as husbands and wives. It should be celebrated. It’s love.

Shouldn’t love always be celebrated?

“Servicemen continue to be fierce believers in the idea that diversity equals strength, yet during the Clinton effort on gay troops most of us rejected analogies to racial integration. The homosexual threat to good order and discipline was behavioral, we argued, not physiological, and therefore unrelated.

It was a flawed argument.”

From the article “An About-Face on Gay Troups”. It is increasingly easier to see acceptance rising in the ranks of former opponents – more so now than any other time. Under the guidance of rainbow lovers recently added to the White House (including Obama himself), it looks promising that even those who were initially against gay rights and gays serving in the armed forces are starting to take another look at their original arguments. And acknowledging that perhaps gays do not join the army to check out their barrack buddies in the showers (because, you know, losing an arm or getting shot through the head is totally worth it just to get a glimpse of a man (not) in uniform).

Not that I have any plans at all on joining the troops in good ol’ Sam’s war. But it’s good to know that if I fall and break my head and suffer from amnesia and someone tells me I’m a purple heart war-hero lesbian, well, at least I can tell the world I’m a purple heart war-hero lesbian and not have to hide it.

Do you think we’re heading in the right direction?

This is probably some of the most exciting news I have heard yet (undoubtedly for personal reasons which I feel I don’t really have to say – my biased point of view is most likely well-known to those of you who are reading).

“Obama Picks Lesbian To Be White House Associate Counsel.”

Of course her orientation doesn’t have anything to do with why she was picked, but it does give reason for celebration by the GLBT community for finally being given some limelight in the White House. Alison Nathan has a big job to do when it comes to legal matters, but I feel like this is yet another HUGE step in terms of civil rights. All of a sudden, the ball is in our court and things might actually start getting done. She’s been working for Obama for awhile (being the head of his Gay Advisory Committee) and his decision in picking her is an unspoken promise that everything is going in the right direction.

(See? Sometimes I can be like a good, little, political lesbian.)

In regards to this earlier post, I have re-evaluated my first instinctual response after a discussion with Ash’s mom on why Obama might have thought this was a good choice.

The fact is he is bringing together two long-opposing sides of a very popular argument. Maybe this is not a rash decision on his part, but instead a very VERY well-thought out step in the best direction. While being gay might make people think I’m a radical leftist, I am actually kind of conservative when it comes to a few political arguments. I think the extremists on both sides could learn from each other and a happy medium could eventually be found. With Obama inviting Rick Warren to speak at his inauguration and having such a strong gay community following him and supporting him, maybe the bigger picture he’s looking at involves a lot more hope than I would have guessed. Maybe his reasons behind this is actually an attempt to make each of the sides face each other on common ground and actually listen to what the other person has to say. In this way, maybe Warren will learn something about equality and the other side could learn something about putting faith into action. Or something like that (though I think they have definitely put faith into action, with a flair, of course). You know what I mean.

Maybe I’m just reaching for a good reason for all of this. Is this a reach? I have no clue. I can’t say it still doesn’t hurt though to have an anti-gay preacher who has compared gay marriages to incest and pedophilia speaking at our gay-friendly president’s inauguration.

But there’s always hope.