Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Church – Unitarian Universalist
Standing
On the Side of Love
Rosie
Smith
September
24, 2006
Why I
Need YOU to speak in Opposition to Ballot Measure 1
Usually I try not to get personal with large crowds of
people. I’m something of an introvert,
or I used to be before HB 751 oozed up through the drain of the Virginia
Legislature. I may have to re-evaluate
myself for that trait when the drain clears in November. I feel more like Cassandra with each passing
hour.
But please hear
me on this: politics, particularly the
sort of politics in play in this state this year, is personal. I believe it’s disingenuous and certainly
dangerous to believe that we, as people whose guiding principles stress the
free practice of democracy, can refuse to be “political” any longer. Passing the resolution to allow the church to
speak as a body was a wonderful start, but please don’t think that’s where we
get to rest.
If you’ve read the amendment and listened to our
Attorney General, then perhaps you clearly see the argument that with this
amendment, Virginia intends to invite itself to sit at our kitchen tables and
vet our financial and health care choices, to listen at our bedroom doors, and,
for me the most shocking consequence of all, to stand in our sanctuary and tell
us what is right for all families, and what is best in terms of religious
belief. To tell us, if you will, just
what God intends for us. To define which
beliefs are “real” in terms of consequences.
I need you to inform yourselves and speak to people
about this amendment because there simply aren’t enough people in the sexual
minority that is the purported target of this hateful amendment to defeat it
without your help. That’s what the
proponents are counting on: that the general populace will not be aware of the
amendment and will not be informed enough, or in some cases even awake enough,
to read and comprehend the possible implications of the second and third
paragraphs when they encounter it in the voting booth. Already I have heard folks say that the
second paragraph is simply the legalese
that makes the first paragraph work. I
believe if you read it you’ll see that it goes far beyond making the first
paragraph work. Speak to people who
cross your path and get them to read it all.
Disabuse them of the “legalese” argument.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment
because I need you to feel the power
that belongs to being an ally. I want
you to enjoy the thrill of changing minds and hearts. I need you to believe in
the power of reason, which flies in the face of this proposal. I need you to dispel fears of people who may
know you, but may not know any out lesbian or gay people, or may not realize
that you are one of “those people.” You,
in this congregation, actually KNOW gay and lesbian couples. We’ve sat in church with you, served on
committees here, taught your children, furnished and enjoyed auction dinners,
and attended your weddings and memorial services. And you have attended ours. Our kids have played with your kids. You KNOW
that the rhetoric about gays and lesbians and our alleged desire to perpetrate
depravity of all stripes is simply a distraction from the utter lack of need
and sheer inequity of this amendment.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment
because when I went last week to an open house at a business in Crozet, the
woman who was staffing the welcome table hadn’t even heard that the amendment
would be on the ballot. In the course of our transaction, I told her my
“husband” was actually a wife, and she told me she is in a committed lesbian
relationship (and plans to vote no, now).
I’m sure there are others like her.
I need your help to find and alert people who might vote no. I need you to speak out and dispel any cloak
of silence around this issue.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment
because I may be compelled to leave my home, the state I was born in, raised
in, and hoped to grow old in, if this amendment passes. We have put down roots here that I can’t
imagine transplanting. I need you to
speak because I don’t want to lose friends and families who will definitely
leave.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment
because I get lonely. And when I get
lonely, I become tired and fearful. If I
know you are speaking to people, I will be encouraged when, instead, I feel
like just shutting up and shutting down.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment
because I believe that truly none of us are free until we are all free. I need you to start speaking and refuse to be
silenced.
I need you to speak in opposition to this amendment to
as many people as you can because the Commonwealth Coalition cannot win this
struggle for you without your help. I
need you to realize that this struggle really is for you, for all of us. I need you to speak out because if history
repeats itself, (which it seems to do when people don’t pay close attention and
start speaking out soon enough) the gay community with its hopes of someday
attaining legal recognition for relationships is just the canary in the coal
mine of people who have dared to claim their civil rights. Already legal assaults on reproductive choice and affirmative action
are reaching a Supreme Court chosen by people who believe this nation should be
a Christian nation. And they know what
they mean by that.
If you don’t speak out when they come for us, where
will we be when they come for you?
Please speak out today. And tomorrow. And the next day . . .