Fuckin Right Jeremy McKinnon. Fuckin Right.

My boyfriend is going to love this.

I talk to my dad about almost all of the issues in our lives. One of the main ones as a gay man is marriage equality.

Of course I am in favor of it, and I thought that once I came out to my dad he would also want me to be able to marry by default of having a gay son. Unfortunately that is not the case.

I have gone back and forth with him on this issue, he still holds the same thoughts.

I am not saying that he is a bad person, he was raised a certain way and in a certain time that there was not even a thought about two people of the same sex marrying each other, or being open in any relationship for that matter. 

While talking to him, he has opened my eyes to many opinions and viewpoints of a straight male and it has helped shape my views for the better. I just hope that one day I can show him what my community has been fighting for and why we have such passion for this issue. Actions speak louder than words and in time I wish that he does come to accept and support marriage equality, so for now I will have to settle for showing him my recorded thoughts.

He says he gives me 98% of his support. Not bad compared to the reaction he gave me the day after I came out to him. Also, it is much more than what many people face when they come out to their fathers, and for that I am extremely grateful.

The other two percent that he does not support is Pride Parades (that is a whole other post I can rant about after going to my first Pride parade this year) and marriage equality.

He acknowledges that nothing would change in his marriage if I were to marry my partner and he knows that hell would not erupt from the ground and slaughter every new born child.

However he won’t go out in support of it (I’m not asking him to go out to marches and parades) but it would be nice to know that my father would vote in favor of me being legally recognized as a full member of the American society.

If marriage equality does not get passed in my lifetime (which it will), I will still be pretty happy if a civil union was actually equal to a full Marriage. It wouldn’t be the case since we know from history that separate but equal is anything but equal, but that is neither here nor there.

I would still call my partner my husband, I would still tell people I was married and I would have all the benefits of a married couple. Compared to how it is today, it would be a total victory for me and my future husband.

Here is why I (and the rest of the LGBT community) get so upset about the issue:

We aren’t full citizens in the eyes of most of America and under the law.

It is as simple as that.

It comes to a point where people have to decide if their traditional views on marriage are more important than letting people feel like they are of the same value as the rest of the country.

“Tolerance is giving everyone else the same rights you claim for yourself”

-Robert Green Ingersol

As a gay man, I am of course in favor of marriage equality and I believe that in my lifetime I will be able to marry (not enter a Civil Union with) my future husband.

However, I think that things would be much easier and faster if my counterparts fighting for this right went about it in a different way.

At the heart of the debate on the pro gay side is that we want the same rights as heterosexual couples who are inherently given the right to marry. I want to know that if Tommy were to go into the hospital for any reason, I would be able to be by his side giving him strength through his endeavor, just like any heterosexual couple. I know that as much as it hurt my dad to see my mom in the hospital, I know he would have killed anyone that got in his way if they denied him into that room. 

I would like the federal government (and hopefully the general public throughout America) to look at decade long homosexual couples as more than mere “roommates”. The thought of a government classifying the relationship with the one I love and share everything with as nothing more than the relationship I share with the other people in my college dorm sickens me, as well it should.

I do think we have skipped a step in the fight for our inevitable grant of marriage, the benefits.

As I look back at the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, I realize that the gay community skipped the “Separate but Equal” chapter of the African American struggle for their rights since civil unions are not equal to marriage even though they are separate.

We have a portion of those rights in civil unions, but the problem is that they are not completely recognized by the federal government and the benefits vary state by state. Pursuing the same benefits of marriage through a civil union will please both sides of the debate (at least for now).

Personally, I couldn’t care less if someone wants to call my relationship a civil union as long as I receive the same benefits as a married person. I am still going to call my partner my husband, I will still say I am married as it seems as natural to me as a wife would call her partner her husband. This also pleases the other side since we would not be “taking anything away from traditional marriage”.

There is a big misconception in the discrimination people feel towards “gay” marriage. Believing marriage is for a man and a woman is not the problem. Thinking gay couples do not deserve the same benefits and recognition as straight couples is undeniable discrimination. It would be a giant step in the right direction if we were to get the government behind us in any concrete fashion whether it so happens to be called marriage or not.

Also, why the fuck can’t I give blood. Straight people have AIDS too, this isn’t 1986 and even if it was it is still pure discrimination.

So I am changing my posts that are only seen by one “follower” who is probably not reading them anyway to my three favorite things.

1. Music

2. Soccer

3. Guys (Specifically Tommy)

All three of them enhance the happyness that is in me and make me want to be a better person everyday.

Enjoi

I want to say that the biggest reason why I don’t have faith in a particular Deity or god is my upbringing. I was never indoctrinated into that lifestyle. 

Sure I was brought to church and was baptized as a kid, but it was never about following the rules in order to become a devout follower of a certain faith.

It is only by coincidence that I was not born into a fundamentally religious household, whether that be Christian, Pagan, Islamic or whichever of the thousands of practiced religions out there.

This gave me a chance to look at the religious faith in all forms from an outside perspective and create my own perceptions around religious practices and faith in general. 

I am sure that if indoctrinating children into a certain religion was not allowed from her on out, there would be many more people like me not interested in the thought of a certain religion that their parents believed in.

There is no such thing as a “Christian” child, that phrase implies that a child is not only automatically and inherently a Christian because their parents are, but cannot find fatih in another religion once they are older.

The same thing goes for any other word used to describe someone (other than their physical characteristics). 

Even though there is no biologically inherent factors that decide a person’s religion, the fact that they grew up in a household with parents who believe in a certain religion does increase their chance of following suit.

In other words, I don’t believe indoctrination is the best way for someone to truly “believe” in something. If you have to drill a belief into someone’s head when they are at their most impressionable in order for them to believe, your faith is not strong enough to stand on its own.

Haven’t posted anything in a while (not that anyone is reading this anyways) but I hace come to one conclusion in my absence.

My happyness doesn’t come from anyone else but me. I don’t need a boy, a nice job or a ton of money to be happy.
I’m not saying that any of those things would make me sad, they just aren’t the supply of my happyness.

Justin, I wish the best for you, but at the moment you must know that being nothing compared to friends is probably what is best for us.

gaykissesandlove:

DON’T BE AFRAID

hot4hairy:

In Canada, as of July 20, 2005, according to the Civil Marriage Act, all same-sex marriages are considered legal

Dear United States of America,

take notes.

Sincerely,

Human Rights