| Towards a Fuller Equality: the Choice is Ours and Ours Alone |
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| Opinion - Thompson & Gaughan | |||
| Written by Lisa Thompson & Sharon Gaughan | |||
| Thursday, 31 August 2006 19:00 | |||
Springfield, Virginia, USA. Equality is the recognition that, at our core, we are all human beings, the same people.
Supposed difference in nationality, race, ethnic background, and sexual preference, fall by the wayside when we recognize the shared humanity within us all.
The Great Depression leveled our presumptions. Centering on North America and Europe, it quickly spread around the world. Companies went out of business, construction halted, production stuttered. Farmers and rural areas suffered as food prices dropped. Those who lived through the Great Depression shared a common experience. Outward differences were insignificant when everyone was struggling for their next meal and a place for their family to sleep. A united America worked towards recovery.
At the start of World War II, the majority of black, white, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, still lived separate lives, keeping to their own. Pearl Harbor and D-Day changed that forever. With the future of America at stake, we found ourselves engaged in a joint enterprise, working side by side to defeat our nation’s enemies.
Long held prejudices against race and ethnic background began to fall away when the war found us united in common cause. Stereotypes weakened as the war taught us to distinguish between accidents of birth (race, ethnicity) from individual personal behavior (crime, shiftlessness, altruism).
The lessons of the Great Depression and World War II gave birth to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States by teaching us that all Americans, no matter what shade their skin may be at birth, have the same needs and desires. Shared experience enabled the American people to respond and begin down the long, hard road to complete the unfinished task of achieving racial equality. We recognized that all of us were Americans, equally deserving of a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
On a Friday evening in 1969, the Stonewall Riots occurred. Young gays, many of them queens, lay lying on the street, bleeding from the head, face, mouth and eyes, beaten by police on Christopher Street. A vivid image that retains its emotional impact even today.
In the bodies of Stonewall, the modern gay rights movement was born. For the first time in modern history, a significant numbers of gay people had resisted homophobic brutality and arrests.
Since Stonewall, there has been a slow movement towards gay equality, but nowhere nearly enough. Progress can be described as piecemeal and slipshod at best.
To answer the question as to why this is so, we need to examine the public image of the Gay Rights Movement. We need to determine why people of consequence do not champion our cause. How can the American public - at best - be indifferent to whether we are treated equally under the law.
Look around. Where are the gay people? For that matter, where are the post-op transsexuals?
For the most part we are invisible, stuck in our closets. Just as the rest of America, we leading our ordinary lives of quiet desperation, dealing with the day to day necessity of earning a living. The majority of the queer and transsexual community are indistinguishable from straight America. We disappear into the rhythm of our lives: work, home, and family.
If most of the gay and transsexual community is invisible, what does America see? We have to ask ourselves, what exactly is visible to those outside our community?
Sexual caricatures that only serve to emphasize any differences from straight women and men and the community as a whole:
All that is visible to the majority of our neighbors are the exceptions to the gay and transsexual community. The media, and the rest of America, only sees the adolescent acting out, the over the top theatrics of the queens, and the naked amoral sexuality of the gay bar scene, not the ninety five per cent of the Gay and Transsexual community who are at home and work every day leading middle class existences.
To overcome our media image, to take our self made weapons out of the hands of our enemies, the rest of us need to come out of hiding. We need our neighbors to see that we all -- straights, gays, lesbians, transsexuals, the entire circus of queer life – are engaged in the common enterprise of America.
When we are visible in the churches, when we stand up in the military services, when we announce our presence in the workplace and our neighborhoods, we can no longer be demonized by those who would keep us closeted or worse. When we are plainly visible working alongside our friends and workmates, only then can we achieve true quality.
We are no different than every one else. Straight, gay, transsexual, or gender queer,
But none of this is apparent if we hide from straight America. If we remain invisible, we yield the public argument to the most extreme within our community, the ones who strike America as most different and strange and not like them.
If we are to obtain our true legal equality, we must emphasize our common experience - the everyday, boring sameness of queers and straights - not our differences. We need to separate behavior (drag queens, stone butches, acting out) from who we really are.
We need to embrace our humanity, become visible to our neighbors and co-workers, and publicly participate in the great experiment that is America.
We can continue to allow ourselves to be demonized or we can take control of our own lives and destiny.
The choice is ours and ours alone.
  Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is the Co-Founder & President of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as a Contributing Editor. Ms. Sharon Gaughan is the Co-Founder, VP, and Executive Director of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as the Managing Editor and columnist. The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. The sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
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The TS-Si News Service is a collaboration of TS-Si staff, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Contents do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates