Opinion: On National Coming Out Day, we must vote

Sign Up For Our FREE Daily eNews!

O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Screen Shot 2017 03 06 at 6.58.40 PM

Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn


In forming a marital union, two people be­come something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves.” On June 25, 2015, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote this in the majority decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court Decision that extended to same-sex partners the right to marry.

Five years later, a Republican administration that is demonstrably bigoted on so many levels is working to make being Queer taboo. For the past 4 years, my civil liberties as a queer Black person living in this country have been under attack. My only safety net has been the string of decisions by the Supreme Court affirming my civil rights, each one a consistent reminder of rights to which many think I remain unentitled. But now this refuge, too, is threatened by a President who will stop at nothing to make sure the Supreme Court is made up of people who want nothing more than to ensure the continued subjugation of people who look and identify like me.

This year’s election — already consequential — has thus taken on new meaning for me. A solid Conservative majority on the Supreme Court would mean the slow and steady rollback of the rights that I thought were inherent — rights that protect me from being fired, allow me to get married, and give me the ability to affirm my gender the way I see fit. Those rights are on the ballot in November. And our deepest fears are, too. Our lives are on the ballot.

I grew up a few towns over from Wilton Manors, ranked second in the U.S. for its percentage of gay couples as a proportion of total population, so I was accustomed to LGBTQ equality from a very young age. Being this close to a gay village made it very easy to find community and organize around LGBTQ rights and equality. Being proud of who you are, and standing in your truth was something that was instilled in me from a very young age.

It wasn’t until I began college at my historically Black university I got a more holistic view of the gay & queer Black experience outside of my liberal bubble. Here I came to understand the battles that still needed to be waged for a better future, battles I continue to fight to this day. I found kinship and community among a wide array of Black gay and queer people from around the country. I heard and saw the pain they experienced growing up Black and queer in places that aren’t friendly to folx who are different. They had to overcome unbearable odds just to live their truth — and we all do.

Those struggles are heartbreaking and horrific: like contracting HIV/AIDs and being uncomfortable with telling anyone, or not having any means of healthcare; like living in your sex assigned at birth because you have no support to be who you are; like not knowing where you’re going to sleep, and when your next hot meal will come, because you have been cast out for living your truth. The list goes on. These are the injustices that queer and gay people are faced with when people with power don’t like what they see.

As we recognize today as National Coming Out Day, we must also recognize what is at stake for queer and gay people in this election. To fight back we must vote and you can pledge to vote at: http://NXTGN.US/ijL This election matters so much for people like us — people who live on the margins of this society in communities all over this country because backward attitudes continue to be enabled and validated by a President and a judicial system that consistently views us as “less than.” If you’re poor, Black, brown, indigenous, queer, a woman, homeless, differently-abled or function in the intersections of any of those identities, our lives are on the ballot next month. If you aren’t someone who lives on the margins of society, but stands as an ally, your friends’ and families’ lives are on the ballot. We must “not go gentle into that good night,” but must “rage against the dying of the light.” We must Vote.


Image from iOS

Ed Taylor is the Digital Director for NextGen New Hampshire. Originally from South Florida, Ed now lives and organizes in the Upper Valley.

About this Author