I have been reading a few blogs, actually many blogs from around the world, it really hits home when I read that LGBTQ folks in places outside Canada do not have the same rights and freedoms that I now take for granted.
We didn’t always have equality here, back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I was there marching along side everyone else striving for equality and justice for all regardless of sexual orientation or gender.
It truly saddens me when I read of other countries that deny basic human rights and freedoms to LGBTQ folks, it saddens me even more when they use Religion as an excuse to discriminate against others, they can hide behind their Bibles, but it is just a front for Homophobia.
All this makes me glad to be a Canadian, my generation and those before me do know and understand the fight it took to get us to where we are at now, sadly the younger generations have no idea about their history, ask any youngun about Stone Wall and most will gaze back at you blankly (yes even up in Canada we know about Stone Wall)
So anyway our collective histories from around the globe, those who still struggle and fight for equality and those who are blessed to have found their equality kind of made me start thinking of my life, not just the distant past , but currently and a wee bit into the future, it got me thinking about how I view others and how we are viewed, about how we live our lives now.
Back in the day when I was still fighting for my rights and wanting to be treated as an equal to everyone else, I was “out and proud” I mean I pretty much advertised my sexuality, I showed disdain for anyone who objected to me being queer, I owned the word queer and every time someone yelled Queer at me , I’d yell Damn Right and Proud right back, I made no bones about it at work either, personally I think my employers were both amused and frightened of me hahaha
Now I am here , 2014, I have my rights freedoms and equality, I am legally married to the woman of my dreams, together we are raising a kid, and really my life has become for the lack of a better term…. normal!
My life and family quite literally mirror your average heterosexual family and I am not sure if I should be happy about that or worried? I mean I and millions of others got exactly what we fought for…. equality, now what?
I mean 10 to 15 years ago I took nothing for granted and I always stood out from the crowds, now I blend in and pretty much take everything in life for granted, I live in a country where being anything other than heterosexual is considered perfectly normal, we are your typical family next door and people in this village of 500 folks treat us as such, I wonder if they would have done the same oh let’s say 20 years ago?
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the country I live in , but I wonder is this it? all that fighting and protesting and educating for this? what was I expecting? I got exactly what I wanted and still wonder …is this it?
My fight is pretty much over, I fit in now and have all my human rights and equality, however that doesn’t mean I can stop being active and grow complacent, the LGB folks may have won, but the Trans gendered folks haven’t yet won, are we as a society just going to leave these folks to fight on their own? or are we all willing to take a stand and fight for EVERYONE, no person left behind.
The suicide attempts and successes are among the highest in the Trans gendered community, a staggering 46% will attempt to end their lives, and even if just one succeeds, that’s too many, everyone straight and gay, feminist or not must rally and come together to help the Transgendered community gain their rights and freedoms.
if we sit back and do nothing to help, we are then by our very nature no better than those who objectify and oppress the Transgendered community.
for those of you who now take your rights and freedoms for granted, don’t ever forget your roots, and do not allow the trans gendered to be oppressed, we are all one , united we stand and united we fall , just think about it sometime, your actions and words may just mean the difference between life and death for someone else, like wise, your inaction may have dire consequences for someone.
I’ll step off my soap box now, I didn’t mean to have the blog post turn out the way it did, it started off as a simple way back when and now post , then sort of took on a life of it’s own.
Remember folks, express your love often, never take tomorrow for granted and be kind to others
Butch
easy wood projects to build
