Illegal love

Saint Valentine was a martyred, according to legend, for marrying Romans in secret.
Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage because he saw love and family as the primary reason that men would not come to soldier for him
Valentine defied the emperor and conducted ceremonies in secret around 270 A.D.
For espousing love and togetherness, he was clubbed and beheaded.

Perfect set-up for talking about gay marriage and the amendment on the ballot in Florida that could destroy any chance of civil unions being allowed in Florida which will also spell trouble for any unmarried couple.

In the name of righteousness, priests and preachers are exhorting parishioners to vote for oppression, to quash civil liberties, to sneer at their fellow humans and say, "I am better than you. You are not worthy of the rights, privileges and responsibilities that I am worthy of."

They really don't realize what they are doing. All the really know, and all they care to know is it makes them feel so very good about themselves. There is no question, "Could I be wrong?"
People who are brain-washed do not question what they have been told.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle - Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)

What's next? Barring gay men, lesbians, transgender people, transexual people, bisexual and all others who are not just exactly heterosexual from restaurants, making them live in ghettoes, marking their stores and business with pink triangles, relocating them to camps with showers and ovens?

Oh yes. It can happen here when people, who think they are good people, don't think
and when people who could and should say something, don't.

It's not just about two people making a commitment to each other...
but I have to ask you, what's wrong with that?

Show yourself

This year, I promise to love my fiance, openly, daily.

It is an act that fills me with fear but the world has been showing me that people who know me, as well as many people who don't, are supportive and understanding.

I came to terms with my sexuality, my "orientation" in an era when killing, beating and harassing gay people was more or less hunky-dory.

I went to the Take Back the Night march and waved a sign and hollered through the streets with my friends. I have been writing politicians and putting money to the cause of equality for many years.

I bought my love her engagement ring and family that runs that small antique store smiled at us and were very kind.

I was walking through a parking lot and two young women walking towards me took each other's hands. I smiled. I felt their nervous energy and their strength all at once. Their public touch is what I marched for before they were born.

I know the people at my job... at least in my section, are accepting. I'm very much not an "in-your-face" kind of person but I am not going to worry about what I say when Joey calls me during the day. They won't fire me because it is illegal to do so in the county I work in.
I think playing it cool and letting them see how hard I work first was a good strategy.

I will work to let go off the fear that any of my quirks and faults may be attributed to my homosexuality and instead I will trust that my faults will be weighed along with my competency, devotion and integrity.

I am 42 years old. It only took me half of my life to get here. I AM PROUD that I was part of the change that has taken place in the world in the past twenty-some years.
My work here is not yet done.

I AM A LESBIAN, NOT BY CHOICE AND NOT BY MISTAKE.
I'M HERE, STILL HERE, BECAUSE LOVE IS THE WAY AND THE MEANING OF LIFE IS LEARNING HOW TO LOVE EACH OTHER. MY LIFE HAS ALREADY CHANGED THE WAY PEOPLE THINK. IT'S NOT TIME TO STOP. IT IS TIME TO REFLECT AND RE-COMMIT.


I dedicate this entry to the friends and family who give me strength: Joey, Dad, Cynthia, Genevieve, Cristy, Derek, Sandy, Virginia, Judi, Geri, Kathy, Barbara, Julie, Lisa, Jana, June, Troy, Randy, Ana, Pat, Vicki, Molly, Kim, Rhett, Angela, Roxanne, Billy, Jess, Maya, Debbie, Pam, George, Tom, Mike, Jerry, Dominique, Terry, Melissa, Stephen, Erin, Regis, Joe, Mary, Ana, et al... and also to the people of the future who will be able to be themselves whether or not they realize that it wasn't always so.

Before you criticize...

I just want to remind you that the Europeans who founded this country did not speak...

Choctaw, Iroquois, Creek, Pawnee, Passamaquoddy, Navajo, Ojibwa, Blackfoot, Crow, Cherokee, Nanticoke, Paiute, Winnemucca, Ute, Pequot, Mohegan, Sioux, Nez Perce, Muscogee, Shawnee, Potowatomi, Kickapoo, Wyandot, Apache, Cayuse, Micmac, Penobscot, Piscataway, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Chippewa, Ottawa, Mackinac, Lumbee, Ponca, Winnebago, Hopi, Omaha, Lakota, Patuxet, Abenaki, Pueblo, Mescalero, Tiwa, Shoshone, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, Assiniboin, Zuni, Onandaga, Cayuga, Shinnecock, Comanche, Arapaho, Dakota, Cheyenne, Chickasaw, Osage, Kiowa, Natchez, Umpqua, Klamath, Modoc, Yahi, Aleut, Chinook, Catawba, Santee, Chickahominy, Samish, Snoqualmie, Menominee, Iowa, Tequesta, et al...

or any other language of the people who were already here. We rarely even tried.

But come we did. At first like alien colonizers and then like fleas.

Who are we, then, to tell anyone else what to speak?

On the one hand, I wouldn't go to another country to live without understanding how to communicate.

On the other hand, we were even more of a nuisance than the illegal aliens who are keeping prices down but also, allegedly, draining our welfare and health care system.

They didn't start the fire... but they are changing everything, just like we did.

Dear Friends,



I have just read and signed the online petition:



   "Filipino Americans demand for apology from ABC and Desperate

 Housewives"



hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition

service, at:



   http://www.PetitionOnline.com/FilABC/



I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might

agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and

 consider

signing yourself.



Best wishes,



Jean

Filipino Americans demand for apology from ABC and Desperate Housewives

View Current Signatures - Sign the Petition

---

To: ABC

To the producers of "Desperate Housewives" and ABC:

We are writing to express concern and hurt about a racially-discriminatory comment made in an episode of Desperate Housewives on 9/30/07. In a scene in which Susan was told by her gynecologist that she might be hitting menopause, she replied, "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines."

As members and allies of the Filipino American community, we are writing to inform you that this type of derogatory remark was discriminatory and hurtful, and such a comment was not necessary to maintain any humor in the show. Additionally, a statement that devalues Filipinos in healthcare is extremely unfounded, considering the overwhelming presence of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical field. Filipinos are the second largest immigrant population in the United States, with many entering the U.S. (and successfully passing their U.S. licensing boards!) as doctors, nurses, and medical technicians. In fact, the Philippines produces more U.S. nurses than any other country in the world. So, to belittle the education, experience, or value of Filipino Americans in health care is extremely disrespectful and plain and simply ignorant. Many of the hospitals in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. (and the world) would not be able to operate without its Filipino and Filipino American staff members.

As Filipino Americans and allies, we band together to ensure that this type of hateful message should not be allowed to continue on our television and radio airwaves. Given the recent amounts of media attention that has been given to Michael Richards (against African Americans), Isaiah Washington (against gays), and Rosie O'Donnell (against Asian/ Chinese Americans), it is ridiculous that this type of hateful speech made it through various screenwriters, the show's producers, the show's actors, and ABC itself.

We demand a public apology to the Filipino American community, and we demand the episode be edited to remove the ignorant and racist remark. We will not allow hateful messages against our community (or any other oppressed community) to continue.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

last night

Joey and I walked in the hate crime vigil last evening.
At the end, we walked back towards the parking place with an elderly woman and we began to talk.
Her name is Irene.
We walked and she talked without ceasing.
As she spoke, I was drawn in like water spinning into a clear drain.
Irene is 72.

Irene is a freedom-fighter.
She identified herself as Portuguese.
She says that she is anywhere someone is being discriminated against.

Irene wanted some soup so we went into a popular deli-style restaurant.

I never even asked her if any of her children were gay, but she did mention grandbabies.

She told us that her husband had been abusive and that now she is alone and happy.

Irene is a county bus driver.
That just about blew my mind.
She said she started out driving a church bus and just progressed from there.

While Joey was up from the table, I asked Irene how she came to her philosophy of life, what led her to be an activist.
She told me that her father was an abusive alcoholic and beat everybody in his family.
She said that later on, when she confronted him about it, he said that it didn't happen.
"How could I be mad at him?," she said. "He didn't even know what he had done."

She said that one of her brothers still hates him and that she keeps telling him, "He's dead. Let him go." The brother refuses.

She said that holding on to those feelings was only destroying her.

She is one of the most marvelous people walking the earth. Maybe last night I bought dinner for an angel.

I told her that I didn't think I could do her job. All of humanity appears on a bus. That's tough.
She said that while it was true there can be tough situations, most people just want to get where they are going. By the time they get on the bus, they have probably already walked a long way in the hot sun "so they are already mad."

She said that no matter what happens, no matter how abusive they may become, she apologizes sincerely if the bus is late and if they curse and threaten her, she says, "Go ahead. I love you anyway. I love you! Muuaaah." She hugs them. They walk away.

"You can't fight love," she told me. You Can't Fight Love.