To our gay brothers and sisters
"I call on my gay sisters and brothers to make
the commitment to fight. For themselves, for
their freedom, for their country…On the Statue
of Liberty it says: 'Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free', in the Declaration of Independence it is
written: ‘All men are created equal and they
are endowed with certain inalienable rights’,
and in our National Anthem it says: ‘Oh, say
does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er
the land of the free’. For…all the bigots out
there: That’s what America is. No matter how
hard you try, you cannot erase those words from
the Declaration of Independence. No matter how
hard you try, you cannot chip those words from
off the base of the Statue of Liberty. And no
matter how hard you try you cannot sing the
‘Star Spangled Banner’ without those words.
That’s what America is. Love it or leave
it."-Harvey
Milk, June 25, 1978; Gay Freedom Day
Rally
If you have seen the ones who advocate for us such as Out4Immigration, Love Exiles, or National Center for Lesbian Rights or have heard any of our stories before about couples being separated from their loved ones and still choose to do nothing ---your disregard hurts all of us. None of us know what lies around the corner---anyone of us could be next. Can we really control who we fall in love with? We are a small group of an already very small group and we are being overlooked by many of our own. As we watch many of you fight for same-sex marriage rights and see the progress being made towards marriage equality, it is difficult for us to celebrate with you. We only wish we had your problems.
The truth is---we are fighting just to stay together.
The gay marriage debate will go on for many years---we are on your side. We need you to be on ours. To us, being able to marry is a luxury that even if the right is afforded...would still not help us. What we are facing is much more acute than that and something that needs to be fixed now. Many of us are already married in other countries, but it doesn't help us. We just want to come home. We can't win this without everyone of you. It still amazes us how many people in our community do not even realize the extent of the problems that exist or that they could be affected by them. We were once in your shoes, before we realized none of us are immune to the possibility of this happening again and again to any one of us.