I just finished watching Dustin Lance Black‘s play “8″ which was streamed live on YouTube. Since the public has never had the opportunity to view the video footage of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals review of the Prop 8 trial (anti-civil rights organizations have fought to prevent it from being aired) this play is even more powerful. I especially liked the theme that they were putting “Fear and Prejudice on Trial”.
Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, “8″ is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8 [LINK], a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial’s historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was on trial.
Here’s the full length play published on You Tube with video clips of the arguments.
First-year college students’ political and social views shifted in a more liberal direction in 2011, according to the CIRP Freshman Survey, UCLA‘s annual survey of the nation’s entering students at four-year colleges and universities. Notable changes were seen in student views on same-sex marriage, affirmative action and access to higher education for undocumented students.
The survey, part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), is administered nationally by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
An unprecedented 71.3 percent of incoming college students indicated that same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, compared with 64.9 percent in 2009, a remarkable 6.4 percentage-point increase over a two-year period. While support for same-sex marriage is highest among female students and those who identify as liberal, a significant amount of conservative students (42.8 percent) and an increasing number of male students (64.1 percent in 2011 vs. 56.7 percent in 2009) expressed support for this issue.
After a 6 month deployment to Afganistan, Sgt Morgan embraced his new love for a homecoming kiss. It’s something seen every time marine comes home and is greated by their loved one. Only this time Its the smooch heard around the world and making photo headlines across the globe. Why? Because the Marine is kissing his same sex boyfriend. A year ago, it would have been the Sgt.’s job and a dishonorable discharge. Today, it’s a symbol of how far we’ve come, how much closer we are to ending second-class citizenry and achieving equality.
Congratulations to both of you and welcome to the rest of your life Sgt. Morgan!
I want to know what it’s like…
To be normal. To be accepted. To be human. To be equal. To be free.
I want to know what it’s like…
To be open. To be heard. To be loved. To be happy. To be me.
I want to know what it’s like…
To feel like I belong.
To feel like I am strong.
That who I am isn’t wrong.
I want to know what it’s like…
To know that I am here.
That Iʼll make it through the year.
To know I wonʼt disappear.
I want to know what it’s like…
To not have to fight.
To see an end in sight.
To make what is wrong right.
I want to know what it’s like…
To be able to believe.
In a higher power that doesn’t see.
Me as sin or sodomy.
I want to know what it’s like…
To have liberty & justice for all
To break down this dividing wall
To remove homophobia from the law
I want to know what itʼs like…
To have a feeling that isn’t sad.
To have something that I’ve never had.
To have a child call me dad.
I want to know what it’s like…
To not feel like Iʼm a freak
To not feel like I am weak
To not be silenced when I speak
I want to know what it’s like…
To live beyond a closet door.
To see my father once more.
To show him I’m not who I was before.
I want to know what itʼs like…
To donate the blood from my vein
But because Iʼm gay I must refrain.
Why does my sexuality pertain?!
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not BE expelled from school
To not be made to look like a fool.
How is homosexuality breaking a rule?!
I want to know what it’s like…
To undo what’s been done to me.
To give sight to those who cannot see.
That I am no lesser of a human being.
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not be considered a disease.
To not have a majority I have to please.
To freely express my individualiTY.
I want to know what itʼs like…
To live in a land truly of the free.
Not a land that excludes me.
This is not how itʼs supposed to be!
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not be the target of bigotry
To not have you question my sanity
To not succumb to your superiority!
I want to know what it’s like…
To overcome all of my fears.
To uncry these countless tears.
That have been shed over the years.
I want to know what it’s like…
To learn about gay leaders of the past.
In my high school history class.
Can somebody please tell me what is so wrong with that?!
I want to know what it’s like…
To have pride.
To not have to hide.
To not have to lie my whole life.
To not have my sexuality be denied.
I want to know what it’s like…
To not have to feel this hurt inside.
To not think these thoughts in my mind.
To not contemplate suicide.
I want to know what it’s like…
To have this pain in me subside.
To heal this wound that bleeds inside.
To get back the tears that I’ve cried.
To take back the years that Iʼve tried.
To bring back the life that has died.
To unite this world’s divide.
To make change with stride.
To not stand below, but beside.
I want to know what it’s like…
To have this choice you say is mine.
To have science & religion intertwine.
To have love be redefined.
I want to know what it’s like…
To have a government that won’t instate
Unfair laws that provoke hate
For fear society will disintegrate
I want to know what itʼs like….
To live in a world without hate.
A world that does not discriminate.
A world in which I can feel safe.
Whether I am gay bi or straight.
This is the world we must create!!!
These are the decisions we must make.
These are the actions we must take.
The time is now we cannot, we must not, we will not wait.
I want to know what itʼs like…
To have equal opportunity.
To know the feeling of full equality.
To be one collective humanity.
I want to know what it’s like…
To be treated equally by my peers.
To stand alongside every queer…
On the edge of a new frontier.
A frontier that no one will dictate.
A frontier where there will be no debate.
A frontier in which everyone can relate.
A frontier made up of love and not hate.
I want to know what it’s like…
To open your eyes so you can see.
The way this world is supposed to be.
We arenʼt so different, you & me.
A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.
Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.
For those who have a hard time understanding what homosexuality is, we are here to tell them what homosexuality is not…
Click here to be part of this effort to create change: http://kck.st/zUspXy
Although February has been marked by LGBT marriage victories in California and Washington, lets not forget and more Importantly take time to recognize the LGBT African-Americans who have fought and struggled for Equal Rights and Human rights not just because of their sexuality, but because of their ethnic background. They have in so many ways paved the way and blazed the trail which we follow today. Take time out to respect those who put their lives on the line so that we have the right to fight our battles in court, protest on the street, and lobby for change. Harvey Milk exhorted LGBT’s to follow the path of the African-American Civil Rights leaders of the 50′s and 60′s…
Harvey Milk once said “The blacks did not win their rights by sitting quietly in the back of the bus. They got off! Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets… We are coming out! We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions! We are coming out to tell the truth about gays!”
FAMOUS AND NOTABLE LGBT AFRICAN AMERICAN PEOPLE
Alice Walker: author, poet, and advocate
Alvin Ailey: choreographer and advocate
André Leon Talley: editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, current contributing editor
Angela Davis: political advocate, scholar, and author
Audre Lorde: author and advocate
Bayard Rustin: chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.
Bessie Smith: blues singer
Bill T. Jones: artistic director, choreographer and dancer
Countee Cullen: poet
Darryl Stevens: actor
Don Lemon: reporter for CNN and news anchor
Doug Spearman: actor
E. Denise Simmons: mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the 2008-2009 term, first openly lesbian African American mayor in the United States
E. Lyn Harris: author
Emil Wilbekin: former openly gay Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine, current managing editor of Essence.com
Felicia “Snoop” Pearson: actress
Glen Burke: Major League Baseball player
Isis King: America’s Next Top Model contestant
James Baldwin: author
Jasika Nicole: actress
Jean-Michel Basquiat: artist
John Amaechi: former NBA player
Josephine Baker: dancer, singer, and actress
June Jordan: author
Kevin Aviance: female impressionist and entertainer
LZ Granderson: ESPN.com columnist
Langston Hughes: poet and social advocate
Laverne Cox: actress, producer and transgender advocate
Lee Daniels: film producer and director
Linda Villaros: author, journalist and public speaker
Ma Rainey: blues singer
Maurice Jamal: filmmaker and director
Meshell Ndegeocello: singer
Paris Barclay: television director and producer
Patrik-Ian Polk: director, producer, screenwriter, singer and actor
“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people. … But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
Post-it(r) notes are a sticky subject at the Idaho capital. Members of a group called “Add the Words” was halted by state troopers while placing post-it notes on the glass state capital doors. Their message? Add the words “sexual orientation and gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Bill. Since October Idahoans have been mailing and emailing messages asking lawmakers to give legislation protecting the LGBTQIA population from discrimination a hearing and pass the legislation.
While efforts have been going on since October to have a Human Rights Bill be heard by the House State Affairs Committee legislators were stunned and shocked when the “Add the Words” campaign showed up on their marble door step. In Idaho, the House State Affairs Committee refused to give the Human Rights Bill a hearing for the fifth year in a row. Sounds like they’re taking a page out of the Utah LDS Legislator handbook.
[Cody Hafner] invites the public to post their own sticky notes or if you can’t make it to Boise you can send your request to your lawmakers to amend the Human Rights Bill by submitting it to the Add The Words, Idaho website at www.addthewords.org.There will be an Add the Words, Idaho fundraising party this Thursday, January 12th, from 5:30-8:30 PM at the Beside Bardenay on the Basque Block in Downtown Boise. It will be hosted by more than 30 human rights leaders from across the state. Cost is a $10.00 to $100.00 donation at the door. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. If you can not attend, you can send a donation to: Add the Words PAC Box 2661 Boise, ID 83701.
Southern Equality launched The WE DO Campaign in Asheville, NC from October 3rd through the 14th. Same-Sex couples requested marriage licenses daily throughout the campaign to raise awareness and call for full equality under North Carolina law for LGBT people.
Raising awareness in North Carolina is critical when this state is considering a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The group isn’t stopping with rights in North Carolina though. They’re calling on the federal government to extend equal rights to all citizens in every state. These acts are inspirational. These acts are courageous. These acts should be viral across our country!
Posted below is a heartbreaking video of committed loving couples asking and being rejected the right to marry. Especially powerful for me were two women who upon rejection of their license asked:
“We’ve been together for 25 years… We’re in our mid 60′s. Can you tell us what steps we might take to become full and equal citizens under the law… before we die?
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