Saintless

Eric Ethington, of Pride in Your Community, set up a candlelight vigil tonight. I was pleased to see that the ratio of men to women attending was about 40/60. I often bemoan the fact that in Utah, all the activists seem to be male, but we almost made up 50% this time!

I met quite a few interesting people tonight. There were at least two women from Utah County. One of which had only come out to her family last week, only to find out that they weren’t surprised. There was a woman there who brought her parents, who were very pleasant to chat with. My friend Justan’s whole family seemed to be there, including his adorable 2 year old brother.

I am really glad that I got a chance to go. I seem to have missed about 90% of the social and political events lately. And I got to meet some great people that really have made me feel very good about where our movement is going. It seems that more and more family members are standing up to support their LGBT sons and daughters and fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers. Not only supporting them, but actively taking a stand, talking to their coworkers, or their friends, and making it known that they are proud of their loved ones who happen to be LGBT.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the progress we are making. This is a fight that people like myself have been having since before I was born. And the progress from having homes and gay bars raided, and gay people sent to jail, to a more honest debate about protecting people from being fired because they’re gay, or even transgender, is a lot of progress. Although there are discouraging moments, and progress really just can’t happen fast enough, this is a battle that we are winning. And we will continue to win. The next generation, my children’s children, might not even understand that there ever was an issue. And that’s what this is all about. Equality isn’t about getting special rights for a certain group. It’s about true equality, where the difference in skin color, or who you want to fall in love with, or whether you’re male or female aren’t seen as a difference when it comes to living your everyday life. And if you can be fired, or evicted, or denied a marriage license, or arrested – your life is much different, and you are forced to hide a part of yourself because of it.

ENDA needs to pass. And it needs to pass with transgender protections. I can’t advocate for protection for myself, when my brothers and sisters who have fought for me will get left behind. And Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, has said that she the Employment NonDiscrimination Act would be her next priority. We need to make sure this happens.

Please call Speaker Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote. As always, please be polite, but firm. After you call, I’d love to know how the call went in the comments. And then get your loved ones to call, too.

As a side note, tonight was also Earth Hour 2010. I somehow missed this – I typically participate and turn my lights out for the specified hour. I’m not sure how that happened, but I wouldn’t have been home anyway, since I was up at the Capitol during that time. It was nice to talk to the guy who set this up at Capitol Hill. I can’t remember his name, but he came by and talked to us for a few minutes. It was only dusk at that point, so I hadn’t yet noticed that the lights were out (outside, though since there was a prom going on inside, those lights weren’t turned out!), but as I looked around, I did notice that all of the outside lights were out. Even though I wasn’t able to participate, this is something that concerns me on a daily basis. I always try to keep the lights and unused appliances turned off, when possible. And that’s the point of Earth Hour – to bring attention to the daily things we can do on an individual basis.