Groveling at the Knees of Power

I have tasted equality and I will never go back. I want to tell my friends what I am going through being on the edge of the latest civil rights movement, but I cannot find the right words to tell you what it is like. I just don't know if people who have not had their right to be equal debated over in State Houses, courts, churches, on the street, in the media, at work, and at home could ever understand what it is like for me and all the queers in the states right now.

Last night, we went to a meeting with our representative, John Fresolo. It was horrifying. When talking to a straight male ally of GLBT individuals, the representative called GLBT people "them." Have you ever been called "them" to your face? I don't even know how to tell you it feels because it feels that bad. At another point in his speech, he essentially told us that to him, voting on placing our marriage rights is the same as voting on tax increases and school closings. His white, heterosexual, Catholic privilege was beyond any that I have ever experienced in person. When a pastor and others pushed him to hear the human toll of the vote, he became angry at us. When asked if marriage had changed the commonwealth, he said no but then could not adequately address why he must vote to jeopardize our civil rights. He even called Peaches and I "girls."

One woman may have captured one thing I want to tell my straight friends and readers that I have never found the way to tell you. She told the representative "I don't know you and you don't know me. I am angry that I have to ask you for the permission to marry the woman I love." It is horrible to have to ask such people, even beg them, to vote for your right to be equal. It is humiliating to grovel at the knees of power, asking for your crumb.