If you follow me regularly, you may have noticed that I rarely blog about anything political. I have my views, but I don't often post them for all to see, read, refute... However, you will also know that what I do write about is emotions. I try to speak from the heart, and what I saw on Facebook yesterday spoke TO my heart. Because when I realized I was having difficulty distinguishing my friends in my news feed, the beauty of the solidarity in changing my picture hit me.
Those fighting in Washington this week in support of same-sex marriage are sending one simple message. We are all people, we may not all love the same way, but we all love. And we know how important love is to our happiness. I happen to be a woman who is attracted to men, but on my screen, I am now indistinguishable from close to half of my Facebook friends -- men who are attracted to men, men who are attracted to women, women who are attracted to women, people who love LOVE and want to say, "One love is not greater than another."
Then came the statuses mocking the sweeping change of profile pictures. I understand your point of view of what appears to be "jumping on the bandwagon" but the point is really, in this decision where nine people will decide who has the right to marry, the world is saying this is how we feel. As evidenced in this tweet I stole from a TIME article...
...Clarence Thomas may not "like" George Takei's profile picture tonight on Facebook, but in this time of social media inundation, I think articles like this one will indeed pass through their minds before the end of the hearings. (Although if you ask Ellen you might get a different opinion.) One of the biggest debates in this case is whether or not this is a decision that should be left up to The Supreme Court or whether is should be decided by the states, and by the people. Well, here are the people speaking up. This is how we fight nowadays, via Facebook and Twitter and Blogger. Via a constantly updated news stream on NYT and HuffPost and Fox News. So, yes, I do believe the justices are listening. We're shouting -- til we're red in the face (or at least the profile picture) -- that marriage is a basic right given to us by our status as US citizens.
In listening to NPR yesterday afternoon, a number of sound bites (Or is it bytes? I'm not quite that tech savvy.) were thrown around. I would highly recommend the NYT's compilation of these quotes here. One of the bites that I found most interesting, was the discussion on what the effects of same-sex marriage are on the children of these marriages, and why NOW is the time to address this issue. (Check out 'Newer than Cell Phones' and 'Crossed that River' for these particular instances.) I'm not a lawyer or a sociologist or a mother. But I spend my days around children and I see children interact with their various caretakers all day long. And what I see is, the children who are treated with love, are the children who are the happiest (and this often coincides with being well behaved and most certainly with contentment). Children only want to be loved. There is a question of, "Won't it be harder for them to to grow up in a family that is different?" These families are only different because we define them as such. Once a stigma is lost, we stop being afraid and we learn to accept. Or as a wise man once said,
I don't have all of the answers. I wish I could make a sweeping argument over the course of this blog that would make the decision easier in the coming weeks, but this is my opinion and for now that's all I've got. Because I am an American woman and I have a right to my opinion. Because the constitution protects me and my right to not only have one, but to speak it proudly. I mean, you are talking to a girl who became a feminist in the fourth grade when she dressed up as Elizabeth Cady Stanton for a class project. And when that same girl took some women's studies classes in college, she learned that the most commonly used term for feminist nowadays is this:
A third wave of feminism arose in the late 20th century and was notable for challenging middle-class white feminists and for broadening feminism's goals to encompass equal rights for all people regardless of race, creed, economic or educational status, physical appearance or ability, or sexual preference. -- Merriam-Webster's definition, as well as the one I learned in collegeEqual rights for all people. ALL PEOPLE. If I could recommend you read one more article today, it would be the essay published yesterday by Cleveland Browns' linebacker, Scott Fujita. He's a pro-athlete, ally, and adopted child to a mixed-race couple. It's quite well-written and it makes a clear, valid argument on the case for gay marriage, but also on the importance of family, and looking back at our nation's history. This isn't the first time a group of people has had to fight for a basic right and it won't be the last. Even if the only way you are able to show your support right now is a small, pink equal sign on your Facebook page, you should be proud of yourself. You are a part of history.
As always, remember to spread some love today.
xoxo.
E
