but it bends toward justice
I've been cleaning my parents' basement this week, sorting through boxes upon boxes that have sat untouched for years. And among the mountains of refuse, I've found some notable childhood artifacts.
There's the political ideology quiz I took in my high school civics class, ten years ago this fall. Based on my results, I was a moderate, leaning conservative. For the question "Homosexuals should have the same rights as anybody else," on a five-point scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," I selected a three. Neutral.
There's my first Holy Bible, falling to pieces in its hand-sewn grey fleece cover. It was a gift from four girls who attended my conservative Baptist church, their names delicately penned on one of the front pages. Last week, I wrote to New York State Senators in support of marriage equality and posted a copy of my letter on Facebook. One of those girls clicked the "Like" button.
That's proof of how far people can come in the span of a decade. She is proof. I am proof.
Now the bill is passed and signed. I sat on my parents' living room floor, playing Apples to Apples with a cluster of friends, my cards unmoving in my hand as I watched two brave State Senators announce their difficult, necessary choices. In the third most populous state in the United States, a Republican-controlled State Senate voted marriage equality into law. In a month from now, right here, same-sex couples will be able to marry.
In all of history, this may become the turning point, the moment when the fight for marriage equality crested the peak of a long climb and gained enough momentum to propel ahead lastingly. I believe, now, that we are the last generation where the freedom to marry is not considered a self-evident truth. Society will always have its bigots and its cruelties, but our daughters and sons will grow up in a world where they are not shunned or shamed for who they love. And we will have been there -- here -- at the birth of that world, working to make it theirs, to make it ours.
So keep the faith. Keep up the fight.
In this country's last civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted Theodore Parker, proclaiming, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
What was true then is true now. Friends, always, always, we are bending, arcing, curving toward justice.
therealljidol season 7, week 29 free topic: semper fidelis
There's the political ideology quiz I took in my high school civics class, ten years ago this fall. Based on my results, I was a moderate, leaning conservative. For the question "Homosexuals should have the same rights as anybody else," on a five-point scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," I selected a three. Neutral.
There's my first Holy Bible, falling to pieces in its hand-sewn grey fleece cover. It was a gift from four girls who attended my conservative Baptist church, their names delicately penned on one of the front pages. Last week, I wrote to New York State Senators in support of marriage equality and posted a copy of my letter on Facebook. One of those girls clicked the "Like" button.
That's proof of how far people can come in the span of a decade. She is proof. I am proof.
Now the bill is passed and signed. I sat on my parents' living room floor, playing Apples to Apples with a cluster of friends, my cards unmoving in my hand as I watched two brave State Senators announce their difficult, necessary choices. In the third most populous state in the United States, a Republican-controlled State Senate voted marriage equality into law. In a month from now, right here, same-sex couples will be able to marry.
In all of history, this may become the turning point, the moment when the fight for marriage equality crested the peak of a long climb and gained enough momentum to propel ahead lastingly. I believe, now, that we are the last generation where the freedom to marry is not considered a self-evident truth. Society will always have its bigots and its cruelties, but our daughters and sons will grow up in a world where they are not shunned or shamed for who they love. And we will have been there -- here -- at the birth of that world, working to make it theirs, to make it ours.
So keep the faith. Keep up the fight.
In this country's last civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted Theodore Parker, proclaiming, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
What was true then is true now. Friends, always, always, we are bending, arcing, curving toward justice.
therealljidol season 7, week 29 free topic: semper fidelis