Why I support the LGBTQQ community so strongly
Why I Support the LGBTQQ Community So Strongly
By: Autumn Alston (twitter: @glambert2038)
I am heterosexual. I am also a biracial female. I, therefore, am far from being oblivious to the reality of discrimination and oppression. At the National Equality March in DC, many chants were uttered; one of my favorites being, “gay, straight, black, white, same struggle, same fight.” That statement spoke volumes to me. While prejudice can conjure from the minds and souls of anyone and discrimination can manifest itself in a multitudinous amount of ways, if the feeling of second class citizenry encompasses our being, we are all in the same struggle; the struggle for equality.
It’s important to note that fashion can be a wonderful thing. The fashion Lady Gaga sings about; as in the kind Alexander McQueen so uniquely creates. Fashion, as in “that’s fashionable” or trendy, is NOT so cool all of the time. It seems to me, that often heterosexuals (mainly women) believe it to be cool to “support” the LGBT community. But by support, what does one mean? I do not “support” gay rights because my gay guy friends are fun to go clubbing with or because my lesbian friends always “got my back.” Many of these same people will say that they support gay marriage, for instance, but I am curious to indulge them even further. I have found that quite a lot of them say they “do not care” or “if someone wants to marry someone of the same sex, it’s not my business; whatever.” Well, that person surely isn’t homophobic, no, but that is not enough. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel says, “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” I could rather easily sit idle on this planet, but that is substandard to the expectations I have bestowed upon my conscience. For indifference never rendered freedom nor equality, and it never will.
There are many social pressures that could lead a heterosexual astray from the concerns of the queer community. But is not the scorn of a few closed-minded people worth the bliss that can come from knowing you helped a cause which goes beyond the direct benefit of ones’ self? I have no direct stake in fighting for the cause of the LGBTQQ community, however, when I recognize the often egregiously inhumane practices and laws that our country sanctions, I am enticed to keep on fighting; second glances or questioning from some, pails in comparison to the importance of justice. The straight community needs to be just as involved in LGBTQQ issues as LGBTQQ people themselves. We may have one obvious difference in that which is our lives, but it’s the love and yearning for equality that binds us together. If Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney carried with them move tolerance and love, instead of a distorted perception of the aberrant nature of LGBTQQ people in general, Matthew Shepard might still be alive with us today; his shine replacing the despair of the water droplets that must fall, each night, on the pillow of a mother in unnecessary mourning. We can help out communities for which we are not a part. That represents true will for correcting society’s wrongs. Was not the stance for righteousness taken by the white civil rights leaders granted glorious in the moral tablet of history?
I am absolutely NO Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but I too have a dream; where our LGBTQQ brethren can live freely and experience the overarching value of love on which our country is supposed to depend. I do not feel like my support for these issues is a “waste of time”; I do not care if I am “gay by association.” The ongoing struggle for a nation devoid of discrimination and hatred is a tedious road to walk, but the weathered shoes from an activist’ foot is more valuable than the Devil’s Prada. In closing, I want to say that I love the queer community and I am proud to call you all my brothers and sisters. As long as inequality and prejudice persist in our society, we will always be plagued by hypocrisy. We must replace hate with love, neglect being odious and become benignant, and only in these humble wishes, can equality and justice prevail. Until this dream becomes reality, I will not rest.
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