UWP Lecturers Tuesday

[Joshua Fenton]

Dear Friends,

 

I am writing to you today to urge you to vote NO on proposition 8 this
upcoming Tuesday to secure the rights of the gay, lesbian, and queer community
to participate in this society as equal citizens.  Furthermore, I urge you to vote no on proposition
8 to ensure that similar measures stripping citizens of their equal rights are
not enacted in the future – who knows, your rights could be next to fall under some
Orwellian mob rule simply because you do not meet traditional expectations.

 

Let us not forget that a central point of American democracy
is to govern society by majority rule with respect and protection for
minority rights.  This ideal is
enshrined in both our state and federal constitutions.  Throughout our history, however, we have done
a poor job living up to this ideal: it wasn’t until 1948 that the state of California finally struck from its laws
anti-miscegination regulations (Perez vs. Sharp), and the rest of the country
finally followed suit in the US Supreme Courts decision of 1967 in Loving vs.
Virginia that finally struck down anti-interracial marriage laws more than a
century after the Civil War.  Should
queer Americans also wait 102 years to be treated fairly, or has our country
finally matured enough to recognize that all citizens be treated equally and
have their rights upheld?

 

As an American, I have to admit that I hate to rely on
others to live my life.  I much prefer to
pull up my own bootstraps.  But in this crucial
moment of civil rights, I need your help. 
It is your vote that is integral in allowing my partner and I to
celebrate our entwined lives.  It is your
vote that is necessary to validate our worth as equal citizens.  It is your vote that will keep us from being crushed
by totalitarian religious views that seeks to blanket all citizens under its purview
and damn those who do not fit under it.  

 

My partner and I will have been together for ten years come
June 2009, and we are already preparing our marriage ceremony for that date.  Plans are in the works and details are being
decided upon, yet we are in a holding pattern in anticipation of your vote.  

Please do not make us rely upon the Jim Crow Civil Union
that is offered by our state.  Separate
but equal inevitably leads to inequality as our long, sad history shows.

 

Respectfully,

 

Joshua Fenton

Your student, coworker, neighbor, friend, and equal



"But every little difference may become a big one if it is insisted on."
~Lenin, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back



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