Dear LGBT community member, I need your help. Our community is so giddy with the recent gains in rights for LGBT people that we have taken our eye off the ball.
We all remember the children’s story of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise challenges the boastful hare to a race because he is tired of hearing about how fast the hare can run. Well the speedy hare is so confident in his ability to beat the tortoise that he takes a nap, we all know how the story ends. I think the LGBT community has become the hare.
With the impending Supreme Court decision expected to legalize same-sex marriage throughout the nation in June, many in our community have taken the position that this important development is the finish line. Hardly. Just like the hare, many in our community brag about how quickly we have moved LGBT rights forward, all the while our slow tortoise enemies plod along.
The integration of the armed forces in 1948 was a seminal event for the civil rights of African Americans but it was the beginning of a new chapter in equality, not the denouement. It was almost another 16 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was adopted and another four decades before an African American was elected to the highest office in the land. Yet, racism still exists in America and seems to be more prevalent in recent years.
Many in our community are taking a nap, thinking that once we have marriage all of the discrimination LGBT people experience will melt away. It won’t. While I know many who would then benefit from white male privilege think the end of the rainbow is near, I am here to tell them that getting same-sex marriage is not going to mainstream your life. And more importantly, LGBT rights are about the entire rainbow of our community.
Just look at what is happening in the United States with the new religious freedom laws that have been passed or proposed in 23 states, most recently the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in Indiana. When LGBT Weekly started a petition to stop the Sodomite Suppression Act from being allowed to be put before the voters and asked Attorney General Kamala Harris, California Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and California Senate President Kevin de Leon to prevent the proposed ballot measure from moving forward, Harris responded. Who didn’t respond? The LGBT community.
Many viewed the proposed “kill the gays” ballot initiative as ridiculous and that I was bringing attention to a silly initiative that was going nowhere. It is this sort of apathy about LGBT rights that allow discriminatory religious freedom legislation to take hold. If you like or share a petition on Facebook, it is not the same as taking action. Thousands of people liked and shared the LGBT Weekly petition to change the ballot measure process but most took no action. If you are not willing to sign a petition that prevents a “kill the gays” ballot measure from moving forward, what will it take to engage you?
Just like the hare, the LGBT community is taking a nap while our enemies are slowly moving toward the finish line. These new religious freedom legislative initiatives allow anyone to refuse service, entry or accommodation to any group based upon a religious belief; any religious belief, including a religion with a follower of one. That means all of the positive LGBT legislation that is passed is subject to the religious belief of an individual. No same-sex marriages in my event space, no gays or lesbians can stay at my hotel, no children of same-sex parents at my kid fitness facility, and no transgender diners at my restaurant. My Bible tells me so. You get the idea.
The religious right tortoise is slowly moving toward the finish line, there is still time to beat him, but we must awaken from our slumber. Each of us must give money, volunteer our time, write our Congress people and vote for fair minded politicians that support LGBT rights. Let’s make sure we change the end of the tortoise and the hare story. We owe it to our children.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
LGBTweekly.com
