Human Rights
So often I see and hear members of the gay community arguing for Gay rights. Sometimes rightfully so; other times not so much. I go to Pittsburgh Pride most years, and am a proud gay man; however I don’t think standing on the streets of Liberty Ave watching leather daddies, drag kings and queens, the local bar floats, etc will really win over the country on our existence in this world, let alone in this city. The chanting can be heard for blocks: “hell no, we won’t go” and “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” There are the signs: “gay marriage now”, “gay rights everywhere”, and my personal favorite “2qt2bstr8.” Now we’ve come a long way since the brave men and women stood up to police in New York City those many years ago, also today thanks in part to President Obama; however, we have a long way to go, and I don’t think our current argument is going to work much longer. No longer should we fight for only gay rights, but human rights.
By only standing on the sidelines fighting for gay marriage, gay adoption, gays in the military, and gay this and gay that, we’re not doing anything but segregating ourselves from the rest of society. There’s a phrase I actually like, “gay is the new black”, this is used not only to say that being gay is the new thing to be (usually by conservative TV critics in a negative fashion), but also to say that we are now the part of society who is most oppressed. Whether this phrase is offensive or not is not the reason I bring it up, but instead to make a point; which is, we have a lot of injustices going on against us in today’s world, but I think we’re going about fighting them all wrong now. The marching, protesting, and that sort of fight might have worked years ago, but the times are different. Even with celebrities fighting alongside us we still are in the same predicament. We have to change our game plan. One of those ways I believe is to change fighting for gay rights into human rights. By fighting for gay marriage, gays in the military, gay adoption, gay benefits, etc, we’re not doing anything but making us different from everyone else. What is the main conservative view of us? The gay community is different/not normal from the rest of society. That can have a neutral and a negative condensation. So why are we feeding into that?
With a presidential election coming up later this year, marriage is sure to be once again one of many views on which both President Obama and the Republican Nominee will be debating on. It’s an important discussion and one I believe we need to readjust ourselves on. When Britney Spears got married to old childhood friend Jason Alexander and later had it annulled hours later, I myself was rather outraged. I was outraged that we are in a country where I am not allowed to marry the person I am so deeply in love with because it is offensive to the “idea” of marriage, and yet her 36 hour wedding is completely ok. Sure there were a few that said it was a little offensive, but the men and women I see screaming against gay marriage were nowhere in sight for this travesty. If there is a fight for the sanctity of marriage, then it should apply for all parts of marriage. Kim Kardashian recently had a marriage that lasted little over two months, and while the world sees her for the fake media whore that she is, no one is saying “we allow this, but Adam and Steve are not allowed to celebrate their love of 10 years?” It’s time we put away the “gay marriage now” signs and instead adopt a different one for fighting for our rights, “legitimate marriage now”. If we show conservatives, who are scared of what would become of marriage were we allowed to partake in it as well, that we also think marriage is a serious commitment between two people, and the majority of us do not take it lightly either, then no longer are we segregated from the rest of society, but showing we have the same moral values as they do.
Now if we were to continue our current way of fighting for our rights, do I think we would accomplish more? Of course I do. But different courses result in different outcomes. It is time we decided what the best way is for us to seen as equal.
-written by Stephen Andrew Bufano
