Righteous Anger

I was accused this week of cramming my “gay agenda” down a throat or two.  I am gay and I do have an agenda, so that part is correct.  I humbly disagree with the “cramming” part however.  But I want to thank that person, it got me angry enough to blog again and I have been suffering from writer’s block this summer.

Yeah, it’s going to be one of those…so if you prefer my funny childhood memories, click off here and have a good day!  

For those of you still with me, here I go.  I do not believe that striving for equal rights in the United States….US Constitutional rights is ‘cramming’ anything down anyone’s throat.  Of course, the haters will always disagree with me.  James Earl Ray probably pulled the trigger because he couldn’t stand MLK Jr.’s non-stop harping on equality for black people.  Why didn’t MLK Jr. just stop that and accept his second-class citizen status?  Well, he had the law and righteousness on his side, that’s why.  MLK Jr. had death threats every day, but continued to get up every morning and fight for his rights and others.

Now, in no way am I saying I am on the same level as that of my hero, MLK Jr.. I like to think that growing up reading about him and my other hero, President Kennedy, that their vision was ingrained in my psyche.  I feel their words deep inside of me, I feel their passion.  It’s that righteous anger again.

Now the Bible, Ephesians speaks of righteous anger…that anger that is expressed in such a way as to bring glory to God.  I am not a Christian, but I like to think that Christians would say that’s fighting the good fight.  Fighting for equality under the law would be something that their God would think was righteous.

I will get hateful and angry comments sent to me because I just wrote the above paragraph.  They will try to say that queers are going to burn in hell…even though Jesus never did address homosexuality….you can’t prove that to me.

I have to authorize all comments to be posted on my blog, so haters beware.  Most of the time I do not allow your comments, so feel free to blast me to burn, but know I am the only one that will read your commentary.

I bring up religion because all the haters…uh er, Christians always want to say that the Bible says ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN.  A family member “friended” me on Facebook this month, then put that as her status.  Facebook is the best thing EVER in my opinion.  The lying faces that smile at you at family reunions cannot resist posting their thoughts for the world to see in social media.  It is a wonderful thing.  She felt righteous about posting it because she was acting under her beliefs and I felt wonderful “de-friending” her, acting under mine.  Win, win.

The family member felt compelled to write me an email and say that I was going to burn in HELL, not for being gay mind you, but for not following the WORD.  I am glad she feels badly for me and will miss me in heaven.  Like Billy Joel sang, I would rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints.  Is it getting warm in here??

I won’t go into my Constitutional argument for marriage equality…read previous blogs.  I will reiterate that I do not want to marry in a church…yours or anyone else’s.  Marriage in the U.S. is a civil contract….so keep the Bible out of it, okay?

The inevitable is going to happen, marriage equality is going to become the law of the land.  I think that is why the haters are getting so angry and revving up their engines.  Dan Cathey, the President of Chick Fil A, admitted recently what has been widely known for years in the gay community.  He admitted that the company is against marriage equality and has made million dollar donations to fight against it.

Now, if someone makes this statement, which he has every right to make in America, you gotta know there is going to be a fall-out.  He made a tactical decision to verbalize the company policy, good for him.  Always good when the haters make themselves known whether in your family or at your local chicken shack.

Now imagine, someone is saying that a national business has donated millions of dollars to keep you from exercising your US Constitutional rights.  How would you feel?

My family member is straight and married to a white person.  But what if they wanted to marry a black person and it was before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the US Supreme court in 1967?  What if the local owner of the chicken shack started mouthing off about the black person they loved and wanted to fight against their right to marry them?

The family member happens to live in North Carolina, where in 1967 it was ILLEGAL for a white person to marry a black person.  The first interracial marriage in that state occurred on October 6, 1971 when John A. Wilkinson’s marriage to Lorraine Mary Turner was officially recognized, Wilkinson was black and Turner was white.  North Carolina was one of 15 states that had to change their law after the Loving case was handed down.  It seems my family member has probably settled in the right state for them…if you get my drift.

So my point is, I am sorry if you view my continued struggle for my rights as cramming it down your throat!  I know if you were in the same situation you would act just like I am acting.  That is the funniest thing about the whole deal. The downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the abused, the discriminated against ALWAYS get both sides.  Why don’t the opposition see it?  They do, they insist on making the religious argument when they know it is a civil right…because under the laws of this country, they know they are going to lose.

I am going to hold the course on my gay agenda.  I am going to continue to lose family members in my righteous battle for equality.  It is all good, I sleep quite well at night.

MLK Jr. was a man of God and a reverend.  I know some of you will say that if he were here today, he would be against marriage equality.  I do not think anyone can make that assumption.  I will not pose an argument….I will just leave you with this quote.  Get some righteous anger my friends.

“Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: – ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

 Martin Luther King, Jr.     August 28, 1963