Living in the boonies without any visible queer culture, I have to live vicariously through the news. So it was devastating to hear the news that Maine voters took away marriage rights for gay couples, a right which was previously granted by the state legislature.
I will never understand why conservative heterosexual Americans see gay marriage as a personal affront. Heaven forbid all American citizens get their equal rights. In an article I read, Scott Fish, a member of the homophobic group Stand for Marriage Maine was quoted as asking "What's the hurry [for gay marriage]?" I can give you many reasons, Mr. Fish, but instead of trying to put them into words, I'll let someone more eloquent than me, a Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. (maybe you've heard of him?) do the talking-
"For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' [...] This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." (Letter from Birmingham Jail)
Even some my sheltered 9th graders, many of whom I will assume do not know any gay couples, have been able to see the connection between African Americans' fight for civil rights and the fight for gay marriage. Why can't the rest of the country? It makes me sick.
MLK said it best when he asked, Wait for what? This is a change I'd like to see happen in my lifetime. I'm tired of being a second-class citizen. Lets make it happen, America.
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