I hope no one minds if I vent and ask for a little nod of acknowledgement.
Was at the grocery store today - I live in a very right-wing dominant neighborhood and the times I run into people who strongly oppose LGBT equality is when shopping. I wear some equality jewelry and gay pride stuff, basically every day, and at the store, clerks have been known to point me out to one another and whisper. I'm actually kind of used to it now. Then today, the guy bagging my groceries told me he signed the petition to get the anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot when they circulated it at his church yesterday. I asked if it was important to him to do that, and he said, "No, but it was a church thing, so I signed."
WHY WHY WHY do churches have to engage in organized cruelty? Why Why Why do people jump onto a political agenda they might not know anything about just because someone tells them to? Without finding out about the implications of what they are doing? Without thinking for themselves first?
Are most people that uninterested in thinking about these issues that they will just sign a petition because 'it's a church thing?"
Should I switch grocery stores?
And another thing bothering me is reading reports that the administration is apparently compiling "pink lists" - which leaves me feeling unsettled and unsafe, what with my name and full contact information belonging to most of the national LGBT groups and all the local ones, including the university coalition. Most of the time, I feel optimistic and hopeful about how things are going, but the days come when I feel frightened that we might be facing even more danger than what we've seen here in my lifetime. So I'm feeling insecure.
Oh, here's the site address for where I read about that:
http://365gay.com/newscon05/12/122005sldn.htm
Thanks for listening! Can anyone spare a cyberhug?
Zerbie
