Kids are unbeatable. Including gay kids.
I never used to care much about gay rights issues, you know. Not in the sense of "I don't give a shit", I was all for it, but in a passive way. In a "I agree but this isn't my fight" sort of way. The fight I was willing to fight was for children (she says, and everyone who remembers the screaming directed at Melissa shudders a bit), for kids' rights to a childhood without violence, for kids to be recognized as actual people, and so on;
and by violence I mean any form of violence. I live in a country where corporeal punishment both in school and at home is outlawed, and this is one of the few things that actually make me fiercely and overemotionally proud to call this place my home.
But recently, I have found myself caring. Sometimes I wonder if I might be, y'know, whiteknighting, and not in the good sense (is it possible to whiteknight in a good way?). In a theoretical way, because I don't go around and argue with people about it -except right after gay marriage passed in NY when I just couldn't help but comment on comments on the articles I was reading-; but still. People who've never been in your shoes latching onto your cause aren't always welcome, you know?
Anyway, I've been clicking around on the internet and on Youtube, and picking up the odd gay channel here and there (and I call them gay channels not because the person is gay but because that's the focus of their videos), mostly the ones that are funny, because the way to my heart is by being funny; with the exception of TheHedonist who calls me babe and that just makes me all melty.
So I follow these channels because they say a lot of things I find true and intelligent, all the while being funny, which is just irresistible. These people make me laugh. And then, whoops, they make me cry.
Now, I'm not comfortable admitting anything makes me cry. I used to be very tense and all about self-control, and while I seem to have pulled a 180, some bits of the old me are still there. But someone posted a memorial video for a teen who had killed himself, and [deity] help me, I cried. There, I said it.
And because the video was full of people going "I wish _____" and lighting these flying paper things, and the comments were full of it, too, I posted "I wish I could make a difference."
Someone has friended me, since, and in a small way that's amazing because it means that my comment alone did make a difference, in the sense that someone saw my comment and realized, hey, this person is my friend, in an abstract way. That it mattered to them to return the sentiment.
But that's a tangent. My point is, I have come to care A LOT, and when did this happen?
And then today, I realized that it ties back to kids. I care about these kids who struggle with who they are and who they're expected to be and who are scared and vulnerable.
I remember how hard it was to be a teen. People stopped picking on me really rather early on, and my last two years of highschool were actually kinda enjoyable (can you believe that?!), but I had a fair amount of social anxiety, and people and interaction just scared me so much. And this is me, a white straight middle class cis girl with a very supportive family- how much worse would it have to be for some of the kids out there?
So this is what it boils down to: I care about gay rights (and I include every member of LGBTetcetc, here), because I believe in the principle of the matter. People are people and love is love and all this to-do is bullshit. But, if you are an adult fighting for your right to marry a person of your choosing (substitute for any other aspect of the issue, if you want), then I will be on your side, but your plight won't make me cry (probably. Who knows with me these days.).
But those lonely, scared kids, they just might.