Note: see the issuu.com link on the side of this page to see this special page in its entirety (it’ll make more sense that way).
Equal marriage is an issue I’ve satirized in a few of my past columns (and maybe it wasn’t so well done since I still managed to upset a few pro-gay readers). It’s an important issue; it shouldn’t be, but it is. And it just seems no matter how I approach the issue, it doesn’t make sense that there are still a considerable number of American citizens who do not have all of their rights.
LPAC , the first lesbian super PAC, was formed earlier in July with the help of Billie Jean King and Chicago Cubs co-owner, Laura Ricketts . The goal of the super PAC is to raise $1 million in order to give gay women and men a voice in congress. In an interview with Huffington Post spokeswoman for the PAC, Sarah Schmidt said, “Women’s voices get lost a lot and get overshadowed in almost all settings…I think there’s a real opportunity here to engage women who haven’t been engaged before”
This super PAC serves as a counter-argument to those who say the GLBT community is not being oppressed. If inequality weren’t an issue, then donors wouldn’t be giving hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned dollars to have their voices heard, let alone feel the need to form a super PAC in the first place.
Although I’ve used this column to discuss inequality based on sexual orientation, there are many facets to discrimination: gender, race, ethnicity, religiousity , the list goes on. However, this is the only one that has legislation supporting the discrimination.
It has been fun satirizing this issue, but my inner satirist (you know I had to make a 50 Shades of Grey reference somewhere) isn’t as aroused by the absurdity of this issue anymore. Writing about it for the first time was a lot of fun; the second time was good, too. But at a certain point, the law of diminishing returns comes into play. Be it needlessly said, I won’t be devastated when poking fun of this issue is off the table.
Millions of dollars and countless hours have been spent on an issue that’s done nothing more than polarize communities. We all know our money and energy could be used to solve important issues, like building better schools, reforming our failing foreign policy and making America a leader in innovation again.
It seems a bit trite to be arguing for equality in the 21st century. It’s almost impossible to read a news article or flip to a news channel without hearing about massacres in the Middle East or death in Iran as a result of economic sanctions; yet deciding whether or not to oppress our own citizens is the hot-button issue we’ve chosen to focus on?
With that, I’d like to introduce you to my many personalities (no, I don’t have multiple personality disorder). This is my attempt at thinking about this issue from different perspectives. So far we all agree that equal marriage should be legal. Yes, I know there aren’t 50 “shades,” but we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to piggyback on the fame of the over-blown erotic novel. Without further ado, I’d like to introduce…myself?