Struggling with marriage equality and IML

[noelbear]

Just got back from IML to hear the (unsurprising) decision of the Cali Supreme Court denying equal marrige rights to LGBT's. Maybe it's just the timing, but the two events seem inter-related in my mind. The question I'm struggling with is, right or wrong, how much does an event like IML contribute to our being denied equal rights under the law

Comments

[apparentparadox]

I can understand what you're feeling, but in my mind they are completely separate things. Bigots will find reasons to hate others. In the past, simply walking down a street holding hands with someone of another race was enough to get people beaten up. I doubt that you would have thought that civils rights for blacks would have come faster if they hadn't flaunted such things as marriage between the races.

Events like IML (and Folsom) blur the distinction between private events and public events. I think that much of the problem with such events is that they are not clearly public or clearly private. There often isn't a clear boundary as to where the event ends.

In my mind, the vendor area at IML is clearly an area that is meant to be part of a private event. As such, what they show there should be limited only by the desires of the attendees. I believe that people attending should let the organizers know what things they like & don't like.

A completely different issue is the general attitude of caring about others. People wearing chaps with their butts out should not be sitting on public seats -- it's just not hygienic. I might be convinced that wearing buttless chaps out in public is a way to make a statement -- civil disobedience or just "there are people who aren't like you around".

I don't believe that being open-minded means that you have to accept everything. It means that you have to consider your reaction to everything, and be open to considering different viewpoints that others may present to you when making your decision.