Feeling Blue in a Red State

Okay so I’m sick and tired of this WordPress thing not putting through my posts, but I’m going to rewrite this again because I feel it needs to be said.

I was talking about the conversation my girlfriend and I had. She had talked about rights and activism, and when choosing a particular ‘pet project’, as most activists often do, she was debating between women’s rights and gay rights. In the end, even though she felt more strongly towards women’s rights, she was more active in gay rights. Why? It seems as though gays have virtually no rights. They are the true second class citizens of this generation, not the blacks, hispanics, or asians, no they’ve risen. The gays are still the dispicable sinners of the world, hated by blacks, hispanics, asians and caucasians alike.

Well you might say that gays do indeed have rights. They can vote. They can drive. They can own property. They can speak freely without prosecution. Have you thought of this though: gays are given their rights under the assumption that they are straight. You can vote as long as you’re not mentally insane, which in some psychological theories, being a homosexual is a mental disorder. You can drive as long as you’re competent. Many argue that gays are not competent human beings. You can own property unless your gay partner wants to live with you. You can join the military as long as you act, talk, and pretend to be straight. You can marry as long as it’s with the opposite sex. So honestly… do gays really have rights?

All too often either one of my friends or I have been met with the situation where we may be exposed of our sexual orientation therefore in jeopardy of being fired for it. That’s ridiculous. Or so you would think. Believe me, it happens. Nowhere in several company policies does it protect homosexuals from discrimination. More often than not, companies state that they do not discriminate against gender, race, creed, color, etc., but few companies cite sexual orientation under these protections. What happens when people out you? Well sometimes your hours get cut to about half an hour a week or one shift alone a week. Sometimes they find some completely unimportant, unrelated, and proposterous reasoning of “letting you go”. Sometimes, they just flat out fire you.

You know gays get enough shit. Many can’t even hold jobs now. Some homophobes like to argue that gays are dirty and cannot hold down jobs. Well that’s because you won’t let them.

Being gay sucks sometimes.