Last night, I was on the elliptical for 60 minutes. I turned my TV to Shark Week (because I happen to love sharks, but I love seals more and always cheer for them when they escape), and a CNN anchor was blathering on about Prop 8 on another screen.
I idly thought to myself, "It might be a good thing for me to publicly support gay marriage. What can I do?" Bumperstickers immediately popped into my mind. There are probably tons out there, and I've seen pretty discrete ones. I was all for it until...
What if somebody rear-ends my car? What if one of my friends refuses to ride with me because they object to gay marriage? What if somebody thinks I'm gay and tries to hurt me? Would the gay community object to me supporting their cause, as a straight individual? And then I was ashamed. I was afraid of the persecution associated with taking a stand, as a heterosexual woman supporting gay marriage. Coward!
What if I were gay. It's just another position on the 3-dimensional continuum of natural human sexuality, but much of the world seems to make such a big deal out of it. I'd have to face discrimination every day.
I can at least take a stand.
Congrats on taking a stand.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it took a while to come around to the idea of taking a stand. It helped, however, when my own brother told me that with the way the laws are written now that he felt like a "second class citizen". No one should have to feel that way.