Get Up Stand Up

Tomorrow in front of City Hall in New York City and in cities all across this country, homos and those who love 'em will be holding a rally for equal rights. Again. Sparked by a national groundswell of outrage over the passage of Proposition Hate in California, it has since morphed in to a call to action for LGBT people and against all the inequalities and injustices we still are expected to put up with every day.

For the record, queers are still fired from their jobs, denied equal access to homes and apartments and we are not protected when it comes to our own medical treatment decisions, property rights and wills. Of course we are still routinely beaten and killed on the streets of the USA every. single. day.

In my own life and here on this blog, I have documented some of the struggles and inequalities I face, both from within and outside the LGBT community and most certainly at the hands of the federal government, as someone who is nevertheless surviving and thriving despite being HIV+.

For reasons that will be made clear, I am and will continue to be an advocate for the rights of gays and lesbians who have decided to become a part of the solution and become parents to children in desperate need, either through the foster care system or adoption. The state of Arkansas has seen fit to eliminate the possibility that America's children in need will be saved from a punishing system and placed in homes where they can be loved and cared for by passing an initiative banning unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents. They did this under the guise of protecting families.

For these and many other reasons I intend to participate and Join The Impact. We will no longer tolerate the equal treatment under the law for LBGT people being prevented, delayed or trampled on by bigots or religious zealots. We will no longer allow narrow-minded, prejudiced, judgmental social throwbacks to tell us who we can love, how we can love them and whether or not we have the right to make and define our own families.

We will no longer be silent. This is the day that gays bash back. It's been a long time coming.