Another Step Forward

[TygrBright]

Today we took another step towards acknowledging that my sister, my uncle, my best friend in college, and millions of other Americans are human beings and citizens worthy of full civil and human rights.

We're not there yet.

But we took another step.

I'm happy for all the GLBT people who have fought and organized, for the ones who will now be able to proudly serve our country on the same basis as straight people, for the ones already serving our country who will be able to come out of the closet and be a little bit more real to themselves and their comrades. VERY happy.

But I'm really happiest for all of us-- including those who are not gay. Even including the bigots and the fear-ridden ideologues who are trapped in a tight, smelly little box of panic and insecurity.

Because all of us are beneficiaries of this step forward. We ALL get to enjoy a future where fewer people are marginalized, oppressed and suppressed, based on some trivial "difference."

Here's what I've noticed in studying history; it's a cycle that has repeated over and over.

1. Some group of people is marginalized based on religious belief or skin color or gender or ancestry. In the process of marginalization, they are removed from the category of "normal" humanity, becoming de-facto "abnormal."

2. Having been designated as "abnormal," they are treated as abnormal. In denying them the normality, the humanity, of some fundamental part of who they are, we create a pathology that was never there before and does not need to be there. We assign the marginalized ones characteristics we believe they must have because they belong to the marginalized group. We regard them as aberrant, and whatever they do (sometimes because they must do it in order to survive,) becomes aberrant because they are doing it. And their potential as people, and their happiness with their essential identity becomes redirected, even distorted, based on others' perceptions of them as "abnormal."

3. And when the marginalized group wins recognition as human beings like the rest of us, and are accorded all the civil, legal, and social rights we all should enjoy, things start to change.

4. Within a generation or two, the people who would formerly have been regarded as "abnormal," and who would have, in the past, built their identity on their membership in a marginalized group, are free to assume whatever identity works for them, without distortion. Eventually, the rest of us recognize the inherent absurdity of the stereotypes used to marginalize them.

And when that happens, we are ALL richer, because those who might have been marginalized, stereotyped, and distorted in the past, are free to be whatever works best for them, and realize their best potential. And we all benefit from that.

I have seen people I love living a lie, and coming to terms with living that lie, and resign themselves to being something that is only partly them. And I wonder, for example, what my 90-year-old uncle might have been had he been free to be a gay man all his life, instead of having to pretend to be a "perpetual bachelor," living in a closet and having abortive, furtive relationships, and growing bitter and cynical. He is a man of great intelligence, imagination, humor, and humanity, and I often think that the road he MIGHT have taken, had he been free to be himself, might have surprised and enriched all of us who love him. And many more.

And we are now one step closer to a time when GLBT people can live and work and accomplish and love and participate fully in all our lives and communities, and we will be richer for it.

So yeah. I'm happy for the gay people who have gained a little more purchase on the rights they should be enjoying. But I'm also selfishly hopeful that soon ALL of us, gay and straight, will be able to put the stupid marginalization and stereotypes and bigotry behind us and be richer for it.

One more step.

Let's keep going.

hopefully,
Bright

[bertman]

1. it's a long, steep hill to climb, but you're right that this is a great step

and that we need to keep moving forward.

Rec.

[cate94]

2. Nice sentiment

The end of DADT is a small step forward and some of the language in the bill gives me pause, but hopefully we will get there. A little bit closer to equal.

From my point of view, the biggest step forward has been having straight allies speaking against discrimination of GLBT's. Unfortunately, I have only seen that on message boards. People like you give me the most hope. I think you make the most difference. Thanks for every word.

[shirlden]

3. Beautiful

Let us take the next step together.

[bemildred]

4. Word.

I am boringly heterosexual, and I agree with all of this.
:thumbsup: