As of late, I’ve been wondering if members of the LGBT population were focusing too much money, effort and, most importantly, time in the fight for marriage equality.
Don’t get me wrong, I think marriage rights should be afforded to any couple that wants to marry, but I also believe we should spend at least equal time working to pass an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), getting hate crime protections and mending the fences between the LGBT population, just to name a few.
With regard to ENDA, only 20 states and the District of Columbia prohibit workplace discrimination based on gender identity and/or sexual orientation. That leaves about 30 other states where LGBT people can be fired just for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. I, like a lot of other people, don’t really see how your sexuality can be a measure of how well you will or will not perform your job.
Maybe it’s because I live in the Deep South and people here, for lack of a better phrase, are bat shit crazy. But whenever I leave the comfort of my house and venture out in public with another LGBT person I often think: “is today the day I’m going to get my ass beat by some homophobic Jesus freak?” I’ve had people tell me hate crimes protection do more harm than good, and to those people I say, talk to me after you’ve had your life threatened for doing nothing more than being yourself.
I’m really interested to hear what other LGBT people and allies think about the marriage equality debate. Are we spending too much time debating marriage equality? Or are we not doing enough to secure marriage rights for everyone?
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I too think that the LGBTQ community has matters of great importance in addition to marriage equality.
ReplyDeleteFrankly I think that workplace protections, housing, public accomadations, etc. are far more beneficial to a greater number of LGBTQ community members across the country than marriage rights.
Marriage equality will not protect your right to work, have somewhere to live or even go to a mnovie theater with your partner. It will not help to deter hate crime perpetrators.
The tax codes and laws that delegate benefits based on marriage are antiquated and do not reflect the compilation of today's families or that women work and that today most employees will work for several companies instead of one job that they retire from.
And why shouldn't single people be able to leave their social security and other benefits to the person of their designation? Why do single people get punished for not choosing marriage?
The fact is that there are a lot of LGBTQ people and heterosexual people who have no desire to particpate in the insitution of marriage, but still have families that should be recognized and afforded equitable access.
Bottom line---Lots of work to do!