I'm So Tired Of It

Lot's of things going on these days, that have me thinking and rethinking, and maybe thinking too much. I keep hearing how we're on the verge of change....Yes We Can...and then I turn the page and see the same old stories.

What is going on in the world today? What is wrong with us? Why aren't people standing up and saying 'Enough!'? Because I've had enough. Or, as my Mom used to say, I've had it up to here....hand held high above her head.

I've had it up to there, too.

In Indiana, now, they trying to tell me that I am 'less than.'

In Kalamazoo, they are already calling me that. Just like California, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, and a lot of other places.

So why aren't more people standing up and saying 'Enough!'?

And I don't mean the gay folks; lord knows we've been standing awhile now, most of us. But what about the others? Those straight people over there. When are they going to say it's enough? When are they going to stand with us and say treat us all equal. We're all equal.

All equal.

Because, you see, not many of them are standing with us, and I don't know why. I hear them say that we should all be treated equally, but I don't hear them shouting. I don't hear them saying, 'Enough!'

Are they afraid of what might happen if they take a stand? Are they afraid that their friends and neighbors might suddenly dislike them because they've spoken out about equality? Are they afraid of being ostracized?

Welcome to what it feels like to be me, straight people.

Every day. Every. Day. Someone says I'm 'less than;' someone votes, they actually vote, on how I can be discriminated against because of who I am. They cast ballots, fear-based ballots, telling me I have no right to marry the man I love; that I have no right to adopt a child if I choose. And worse yet, every day, they're trying to kill me.

They're beating me up in Wyoming and leaving me to die on a split-rail fence. Matthew Shepard.

They stalking me outside a club in South Carolina and beating me so badly that all I can do is die. Sean William Kennedy.

I am beaten to death in New York because someone thought my brother and I were a gay couple. Jose Sucuzhanay

In Ohio they're attacking my partner and me as we walk down the road, sending us to the hospital; and then when we get out, they set fire to our car. John and Larry Charlton.

In Maine they're beating me up and throwing me off a bridge to my death. Charles Howard.

In New York I am beaten and dismembered and left in a plastic tub. Steen Keith Fenrich.

In Tennessee they shot me because I was transgendered. Duana Johnson.

A gang of four is beating me outside a bar in Flagstaff on Pride in the Pines weekend. Michel Brown.

In San Francisco I am gang-raped because I'm a lesbian.

In Oxnard I'm fifteen years old when I'm shot in the head because I said I was gay. Lawrence King.

It's enough.

When are we all going to stand together to decide and declare that you cannot deny us our rights because we're gay. That you can't fire us for being gay. You can't deny us housing for being gay. You can't stop us from raising a child because we're gay. You can't stop us from loving one another because we're gay. You can't stop us from marrying because we're gay.

And you can't kill us either.

Seriously.

It's enough.