According the the U.S. Department of State Dec. 10, 2008 press statement, "Today is the 60th Anniversary of the adoption of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that affirms the inherent rights of people everywhere and enshrines basic freedoms of thought, expression, peaceful assembly, religion, and association." The statement goes further to say, "The United States stands in solidarity with the brave men and women around the globe who work to defend human dignity and advance the cause of freedom."
Really? Most of us gay Americans would argue that the U.S. Department of State has a very long way to go within its own borders in standing in solidarity with us to affirm our human rights.
This is why today is also the perfect day to let America experience a National Day Without Gay.
In the year 2008, 60 years after Article 7 of the Universal Declaration said, "All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection under the law....and the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State", the State of California voted in violation of the equal protection clause (and against the findings of the CA Supreme Court) to make marriage illegal between adult men and women who wish to marry someone of the same sex. Gay individuals and their families are apparently not worthy of the very declarations of human rights the U.S. Department of State supposedly stands to support with us...in solidarity. 60 years later it is still ok to treat gay people with discrimination.
It is still tolerated for kids on playgrounds throughout the country to use the word "gay" as the worst possible accusation, it is still ok for 14 year olds to bring guns to school and brutally shoot and murder young boys whose gender is perceived as too feminine, for families to forcibly send their children to gay camps that use tactics like shock treatment that desperately try to disappear their gayness, for families to disown their gay children, for gay people to be shunned by their religious faiths, for gay people to be fired just for being gay, for gay people to be denied housing just for being gay, for gay people to be beaten and murdered just for being gay, for gay people to be brutally sodomized and raped just for being gay, for gay youth and elders to commit suicide in huge numbers because they are gay, for abstinence only until marriage sex education to be the sex ed of the land--completely denying the existence of young gay people who cannot legally marry, for gay people to be out in the military, and among many other things.....for gay people to legally marry their partners and form families considered equal in society's eyes. In the year 2008 it is literally legal for gay people to bring their pet dogs into the U.S. but not their foreign born spouses for life. ... We are not even seen as more important than dogs because our families and equality are not recognized.
**Convicted serial murderers and rapists living on death row can legally marry and gay, law abiding, tax paying citizens who are deeply in love, contributing positively to society and creating families just like everyone else.....can't.**
The State is not protecting us. It is not protecting our children. The State is failing to live up to the Constitution's call for liberty, justice and equality FOR ALL.
And so today, en masse, Gay Americans are calling in Gay to work as a nation-wide protest in support of human rights and full equality for LGBT people.
Although gay, I am here at work today because I am a sexuality educator. If America were getting the kind of sexuality education it needs we would not be discussing this right now. We could quite frankly focus on more pressing issues-like global environmental degradation and the fact we all might not have a planet to have universal human rights/sexual rights/equality for gay people on if we don't learn sustainable ways of living. If young people learned from an early age that they are to respect their bodies and themselves and protect themselves from disease and unintended pregnancy and see sexuality and pleasure and desire as a precious gift from whatever god they might believe in and not something to be feared and shamed and silenced....and if adults learned that they have a responsibility to keep learning and teaching (their children, their communities, their friends) about sexuality throughout life and if aging people learned that continuing to experience sexual pleasure and happiness in old age might actually decrease negative health and promote vibrancy in their lives....then a sexually literate American society would begin to emerge.....this revolution based on teaching people to recognize and celebrate the diversity and richness of sexuality has already started and NSRC is working with others to lead it.
Yes, it is a huge undertaking. But it is why I am here at work today. I wouldn't be anywhere else on earth right now. I can't think of a better way to pay homage to the 60th anniversary of The International Bill of Human Rights than by working with and for Americans to increase our sexual literacy......it is lifelong and it is our fundamental human right and privilege. And one day it will be so automatic we won't even have to think twice about it... people will look back at this period in time trying to understand how it was that we could have been so vulgar as to allow people's genitalia (rather than their capability for love and humanity) to dictate whether or not they were deserving of equality.
Until that day, we can't do it alone....we need every last person involved in this movement. That means you. Please join us....in whatever way you can. Our freedom depends on it.
