Who wants their civil rights voted on?

November 4, 4:15 PMBirmingham Gay Community ExaminerJoe Openshaw

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Since when has it been acceptable to vote on one's civil rights?

Many in the GLBT community went to bed last night feeling dejected. Even though the votes were not counted, it looked as though the right to marry the person one loves had once again been snatched away.

Determined as we are, some tried to look at the positive side of the election results, and there are some things to be pleased about. Some of these things I mentioned on Bessemer Opinions this morning.  Others wrote about them also.

But the defeat in Maine continues to bother.  Yes, 47% of the people in Maine look at gays as equals.  The rest think we are less than equal.  Less than.

"Less than" is not a good feeling.

President Obama thinks of us as less than.  I have been a big supporter of the president, and still am.  But his fierce advocacy is turning into a whimper.  Did he lift a finger, or mention with a single word, that the citizens of Maine should all be treated with respect and equality?

The Democratic Party thinks of us as less than.  The leaders in Washington will on occasion make a statement about DADT or DOMA and we all get excited, and they passed a hate crimes bill for which we are all very grateful.  Much fanfare was made over the signing of the bill.  Brownie points?

The GLBT community is about to rise up again.  We rose up in numbers in Washington DC last month.  Cleve Jones said last night prior to the election results that even with a win in Maine, it would be evidence that action on the federal level is necessary, because we are just creating a nation of haves and have nots with marriage here and no marriage there (not his exact words, but what he meant).

David Mixner wrote today that what is going on is Gay Apartheid. 

Refuse to allow any of our fellow Americans, President Obama or our allies to view this as a political issue who time hasn't quite come. America is in the process of creating a system of Gay Apartheid. We will not quietly sit and accept it. All over the place, this nation is creating one set of laws for LGBT Americans and another set for all other Americans. That is the classic definition of Apartheid. Either our political allies are for Gay Apartheid or against it. If they are against it, they must fight with us and no longer duck like President Obama did in Maine and Washington. There is no half way in fighting Apartheid.

He went on to say,

We are way beyond where we will accept a little bit in 2009, some in 2010 and maybe more in the second term. Does anyone think after yesterday election results and the upcoming 2010 election, Obama has the ability to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "DOMA" next year? Does anyone really believe we haven't already missed a historic opportunity in the first 10 months of this year? Only a courageous fighting President and Congress can now help turn us this around and that we have not seen so far. Enough.

One thing that must be overcome is the stranglehold the religious right has over the American culture.  Not to knock religion, but when the words of the Bible are twisted and can be picked and chosen to keep a society divided and down (blacks, then women, now gays, who's next?) that is not religion, that is just an effort to control and have dominion.

So the fight, here in Alabama, begins (continues, actually) tomorrow.  Wayne Besen wrote a powerful editorial in the Birmingham News today that told the absolute truth about Focus on the Family and their road show.  He will be here Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 at UAB Hill Center at 7:00.  The event is free.  In addition, Glenn Shadix will share his story of aversion therapy that he agreed to as a teen.

This country was founded on equality and freedom, yet it took 100 years before the Africans who were torn from their land and forced to labor for our nation's founders got theirs, and another 100 years to gain a semblance of equality.  Along the way it was decided that women could be equal, although they still do not receive the same pay as men who do the same job.

This hatred that is masquerading as love has got to stop.  In both the above examples, it was religion, quoting the Bible, that fought equality.  The same thing is happening now.  Yet as so many have pointed out, the real problems in our society; poverty, a planet in peril, crime, war, are ignored in order to keep a portion of society down.

We have to stop letting people vote on our civil rights, for one thing.  What if, during the 1960's Americans, Alabamans in particular, had been giving the opportunity to vote on the civil rights of African Americans after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act?

We will continue to fight.  And we will do it honorably, not with the lies and deception that influenced the voters in Maine.  We will be warriors.

But like Mixner said:

I don't want to be a brave warrior, I want to be a free one.

Enough!