Human Equity Only has One Team

We cannot afford to allow the system to divide equality, equity, and social justice into winning and losing teams... or to delude us into thinking there are teams to begin with... our efforts will never reach maximum capacity if we don't pay attention. We are all, and should all be, proponets of equity/equality... there aren't two different kinds. Right after I posted my last entry, which I was very nervous about doing, a colleague forwarded me this amazing Op-Ed piece. It says everything I am feeling but so much better.

The right to marry who you love

I just wanted to check in... I have been really lost in my thinking about the Supreme Court rulings and the way I have experienced the response to two consecutive rulings, voter's rights and marriage equality, as dissonant. I am so very happy that the ruling yesterday went well. It's about damn time. I do wonder though, when we say, in our celebration of the death of DOMA, that there is finally equality for all, if folks are missing the ominous possibilities in the ruling the day before marriage equality finally advanced (thank goodness). As I have said through the marriage equality movement, this is the not the first time the right to marry who you love has been restricted. For mixed race people and families, many of our marriages would not exist if the civil rights movement had not ended anti-miscegenation. I am terrified to think that if the fundamental civil rights legislations around voters’ rights can be gutted and/or undone... what will happen to the rest? I sincerely believe everyone should have the right to marry whomever they love. Equity is a human issue. I have said from the start that marriage equality is not a solely LGBTQI issue, rather an issue every single person should be fighting for especially mixed race individuals and families. I strongly believed that if LGBTQI access to marriage continued to be restricted that my marriage would be called into question next. I guess today I want to amend that statement... Marriage equality is a human issue... so are voters’ rights... and civil rights... and affirmative action. Just like we saw a black president voted in while LGBTQI rights retrenched in California ... we have just seen LGBTQI rights move forward while the rights of the poor, elderly, and minorities have retrenched. This is intentional. If we can be distracted by what impacts us the most, the power to overcome the foundation of inequity will never reach maximum capacity. If our allies are left asking "what about us" our fight will not have the impact it needs for all people to be safe. I worry every day as the Supreme Court moves father and father away from racial equity that I will one day have to leave or be separated from members of or my whole family. No one should live in fear of prosecution for publically loving who they love. No one should suffer under the possibility that their family will one day no longer be recognized by the government as a family. Let's take care of each other around this and not let the divisive actions of a heteronormative, hegemonic system divide our efforts. Let's take every opportunity to advance equity regardless of whether we think it directly impacts us personally. If we don't advance in this way, I promise, one day it will. more soon...