I am your ally

I am your ally.  I will walk beside you, stand alongside you until you have the same rights that I do.  These things that are rights…not privileges.

I am not married, I have not met Mr. Right, or Mr. Good Enough for Now, or even Mr. Let’s Get Drunk and Married in Vegas.  But if tomorrow I do, if tomorrow I meet any of those men I could without question marry any of them, love aside, values aside.  I can travel to any part of this country and marry that man. 

I have a lot of people in my life who identify as LGBTQ, I have seen what love means and what happy, healthy families looks like.  I have watched the children of my friends understand what it means to be loved, taught to be open-minded and compassionate.  A lesson that we could certainly all use to learn at a young age.  I have learned a lot recently and understand that while we say Marriage Equality is what the Supreme Court is deciding it is so much more then marriage.  If I were to marry Mr. Vegas he could then be on my health insurance or I on his, we could visit each other in the hospital no questions asked if the time came, and receive a number of other federal benefits because we were recognized by the federal government as married.  I am fortunate to live in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage, but I know that this  is not enough, that until the Supreme Court finds the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, until same-sex marriage is recognized nationally rights are still being denied.  Until we can just say marriage.

What is on the line are basic human rights, things that I have taken for granted, things that I, as a straight woman, do not have to give a second thought about.  But I do, I think about these things on a daily basis, and until the people I love (and people I have yet to meet) have the same rights as I do I will continue to raise awareness and support you.

To me this is a no brainer when it comes to constitutional rights.  People can stand behind their religion or their God as a scapegoat for hate and discrimination.  But I stand on the side of love, on the side of freedom and on the side of equal rights for all.

"I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great a burden to bear." ~Martin Luther King Jr.