Next year marks ten years of my involvement in supporting LGBT rights. However, I was relatively weak for the beginning of this period. I would support marriage equality and adoption equality if I was asked these questions in the survey, but I never actively championed for these rights. Ten years ago, I was obsessed with maintaining the harmony in our communities, with not rocking the boat so the ‘way of life’ we enjoyed in the late 20th century would be maintained. For me, as long as the Islamofascists and the Christian fundamentalists both didn’t get their way, and everything stayed the same, everything was fine.
Now I understand that if we don’t fight, people will suffer. LGBT families are suffering, and if we decide to ‘not rock the boat’ or that ‘there are other priorities to address first’ they will continue to suffer. If we decide that Christian fundamentalists are worthy allies of ours because they are ‘pro-family’ and overlook what they are doing to LGBT families, they will suffer. Therefore we must fight.
Here are the four most important things which we must still continue to fight for, which I believe will define our movement in the next few decades, as good allies:
-Full marriage equality
-Comprehensive anti-discrimination laws everywhere (including trans-inclusive ENDA for the US)
-Full adoption equality
-The right for all trans people to have all their documentation match their gender identification (birth certificate, passport, drivers licence etc.)
All these battles will ‘rock the boat’. But so what? It’s what social justice demands.
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