may 8th, 2012 in NC

i have become increasingly concerned about the amendment up for vote in NC this year (may 8, 2012) during our primary voting.  deep down i want to believe that everyone in NC will come through and the "good" will outweigh the "evil"-- in my mind good and evil anyway.  but something just keeps nagging at me and i feel scared that this amendement will become a reality and it will hurt my soul if it does.  i love NC.  absolutely love it. i want to marry the woman i love, in NC, and i want it to be recognized at some point.  i am aware a doma type act already exists in NC and i cannot marry erica anyway right now, however putting it in the consitution that i cannot marry her and obtain the same legal rights as other married couples means it will be a whole heck of a lot harder to ever do this in my lifetime here in NC.  it sucks.  we want to have kids.  we want to protect our family.  we will do these things regardless but it sure would be nice to raise a family in a state that supports all families.  i was clicking around online today and ran across some things of interest and thought i would post here.  these things either scare me, make me fell ill, inspire me, or make me feel happy.  take a look if you like.

this lovely piece you can get from the NC family policy council to help you sway others to believe that the ammendment might actually be rationale and well-founded.  i cannot believe that this is supposed to be compelling to others and it scares me if it is....

10 reasons why we should say yes to banning same sex marriage in the NC consitution again from the NC family policy council

scary is all i can say about this selection of books from focus on the family, perhaps i will see if i can get the book on walking away from the gay lifestyle, i am sure that will help me fall out of love with erica and not want to marry her

this poll that was done recently indicates that a majority of NC residents dont want the amendment to pass however i dont feel super confident about it at the moment

nothing like a good musical

help protect all NC families, check out this organization and help the cause if you can and please if you live in NC please go vote on May 8th...my hope is you will vote no but if you plan to vote yes for this measure than email me or message me and tell me why, id be glad to have a conversation with you about how this will impact me and my family....

its your holiday song.....

really random post but quickly wanted to share my favorite holiday song......it became my favorite last year and it is by the ever wonderful indigo girls, my favorite group.  this song makes me happy every time i hear it........i believe the message is so important and to me its just wonderful and true.  every boy and every girl should learn this lesson.......i introduce the lyrics to "Your Holiday Song" by the Indigo Girls


[if you want to listen to it try this link http://youtu.be/N8RAGpBoFwI and if you want a copy go fetch it at tunes or let me know and i will make you a copy!!]


"Gather round girls and boys,
It's time to make your joyful noise
Some feel it in the feast after the fast,
Or the oil lamps everlasting,
Or the Solstice in the wild,
or the birth of a baby child.

(chorus) It's your holiday song
No one more true or right or wrong
When our faith calls our name
Someone else's does the same
Hallelujah! Thank you.

So gather round girls and boys
It's time to raise your lowly noise
Some feel it in the drum, in the snare
or the silence of their prayer
or the church bells on the hill
or the harmony of goodwill

(chorus)

For every voice lifted in song
The sacred place we all belong
A chance to heal a broken world
with every voice in every song 
of every boy and every girl!

(chorus repeat)"

out we go with "the plan"

So then, we have about 8 months to encourage NC voters to get out in May and vote, and those same 8 months to help them (all of those who may vote, pro or con) see that an amendment such as the one being proposed (SB 514/Amendment One) will do nothing but harm to so many residents of NC.  Harm to the teens out there that are beginning to find themselves and to the many like myself who needed a longer time to find their way. 

I heard a black preacher say at the rally in September that gay rights are nothing like civil rights (in reference to the struggles black citizens faced and still face), because what we (assuming that refers to me) choose to do in the bedroom has nothing to do with the color of someone’s skin so clearly not an issue of civil rights because it is a choice…ok sure sex and skin color, not connected I get that… that goes for heterosexuals too.  As far as I know black people didn’t choose their skin color and likewise I didn’t choose my sexuality and while I am thinking of it did any of you straight people wake up one day and decide to be heterosexual?  Not a choice.  Period.  How is this not civil rights?  And when we say rights, what exactly do we mean anyway?  Because in my estimation my civil liberties (as stated in our constitution) have long since been violated.  Gays, females, blacks, hispanics, etc the list goes on.  For generations our country has found someone to persecute, someone to be afraid of, and someone to focus on so they don’t have to focus on themselves.  

So clearly I chose to be gay.   I chose to live a life where others would ridicule me.  Where others would whisper about me.  Where others would make judgments about me just because of who I was.  I chose to feel sad and depressed when I wasn’t what everyone else was, and when I couldn’t figure out why I was wrong.  I did choose to spend 28 years of my life avoiding being gay that is a fact.  I didn’t want to be gay.  I did everything I could to avoid thinking about the fact that I wasn’t like other girls I knew.  I tried really hard to make myself fit in, really hard to like what they liked, and tried really hard to achieve the desired end result of every little girl’s princess fantasies.  My avoidance lasted through college and grad school and then I decided I needed to be proactive in achieving this all american dream I had clung to.  This included too many forced match.com and eharmony dates with men whom I had zero interest in, so that I might begin to fulfill “the plan”.  You know that one that was made for you when you were a small child…the one no one really realizes they are laying out for the young impressionable little people floating around.  The plan that is reinforced throughout your growing up without anyone ever realizing it, the one where you grow up and go to college, fall in love with a hunky man, get married, buy a cute little house and pop out some babies.  The one that includes lots of pink (vomit) and pretty dresses and talk of makeup and jewelry and shoes and hairstyles and endless gossip about boys.  The one that has you feeling pressure to live up to what is expected of you…as a girl.  The one that makes you feel ashamed of yourself and wrong for not wanting any of those things. 

I have a great and loving family but where I grew up there wasn’t a whole lot of otherness if you get my drift.  I didn’t meet gay people (I mean of course I did but it wasn’t acknowledged or discussed) or black people, or any “other” types of people except white middle class farming folks who didn’t really venture out into the rest of the very diverse world not all that far from them.  I was told all the right things about how we accept people’s differences and we treat everyone with respect.  But, I also heard my neighbor’s bigoted and hateful statements about people’s otherness.  I saw the lack of diversity around me and I knew other was not ok where I was from.  I may not have acknowledged it out loud or had an inkling about what was going on in the deepest parts of my brain at that time but I must have known other wasn’t ok.  I can reflect on all of this now with clarity but I sure as shit didn’t know anything about it as I tried to live out "the plan". 

I came out of the closet I had inhabited for a very long time in April of 2005.  I was 28 years old.  How does one seriously take that long to figure this out?  Is it possible I really didn’t know?  Obviously on some level I knew for a long time.  I had fleeting thoughts about it since I was younger.  Those thoughts were always met with a disapproving nod on my part and a “we are not even going to think about this” mentality, its ridiculous.  I believe now that I could not come out until then because I was just scared and it was against all of my plans.  And if you know me, you know I like to plan.  I like to succeed.  I like to be well liked.  I like to make people happy.  I felt that if I came out and was true to myself I would be letting so many people down and I would be shattering all my plans and I didn’t know how to formulate new plans in a life I wasn’t prepared for.  I needed time to prepare. 

I have wonderful and amazing friends.  I have a loving and supportive family.  I came out and it was truly like we were chatting about the weather, noone was upset with me, no one refused to love me any more or be friends any more.  I have good people around me.  Coming out for me was not the horrible process it can be for so many and that I know it has been for many of my friends.  The process was most difficult for me as an individual not for those who loved me.  Those who loved me, still loved me.  Nothing about me changed for them.  I was still the goofy, crazy person they had always known.  I just happened to know myself better now and I was able to be at peace with all parts of me and move on to embrace what was to come in my life. 

I feel so happy I found my way, it took me a while but I did it.  It is my hope that in reading this you may have learned something about me, whether you know me or not.  Perhaps you might hear my story and understand a bit more the struggle that is faced by so many, in NC and all across the world.  It is my greater hope that you will think about all those kids out there who are being told they should follow a plan, or live a dream that belongs to someone else and doesn’t match up to their own.  I hope you will think about what you can do to help those kids know they are wonderful and beautiful just as they are and however they evolve and let them know that there are great and marvelous plans and dreams of every shape, size, color, and flavor they might imagine waiting for them to latch onto.

let it begin

So I attended a rally recently at the legislative building in Raleigh NC.  You may have heard about this rally or maybe seen my pictures on FB.  I have never been to any rallies before, no public forum to express an opinion or show my support for a cause.  I guess I never truly paid attention how I should have. When I heard about what was going on in my state's government a few weeks back I think I finally woke up, and I realized that I needed to pay more attention.  I was appalled to think about the prospect that was being explored and voted on in our general assembly and state senate. In case you didn’t hear about it… the NC Senate and General Assembly approved an amendment that will be on the ballot in the May election, an amendment that would not only ban any legal relationship recognition for same-sex couple but would also penalize anyone in a domestic partnership currently; this amendment, if passed, would basically ensure that I will never be able to marry my partner in the state of NC.

I couldn’t really understand how it was possible that they were actually contemplating creating an amendment to further make me and so many “like me", second class citizens in my own state.  A state I have lived in for 17 years now.  A state that I love, a place where I grew, I learned, I found my passion in life and where I found myself too.  And also where I happened to fall in love.  I have paid my taxes here since 1995, I have been an active member of my community and a citizen that contributes to the betterment of those around me.  NC is my home.  I am not naïve and I know my understanding and involvement in paying attention to these issues is late in coming (although I have felt put down previously as well) but I felt so saddened that there were people in my home that wanted to bring me down, that wanted to treat me as if I were less important, and less deserving.  It really hit me in the stomach, hard.  And now I can no longer not pay attention and I can no longer not be active in taking a role in my future and what others say that will look like. 

At the rally back in September, all of the speakers encouraged those in attendance to get out and tell their stories, so that we might urge those around us to support our effort.  Just talk to the people you know who might not really know you.  Let them see that being gay isn’t so scary, homosexuals are not sexual deviants, (not any more than heterosexuals are).  Let them see that we are just like them, that all we want is to have a “normal” life, in which we are afforded the same opportunities as the rest of our neighbors.  We are just like you, we are not scary. So this in part is my attempt to do just that, to tell my story and hope that you will understand it to the best of your ability and that you will support my effort to secure a future for me and my family in the state I live in and love.

I had a blog on myspace at one point (chuckle chuckle I know) and it was usually a place I would vent some frustration or share some excitement.  I guess that is what a blog could be intended for, amongst other things.  I think that this blog will be just that and probably a lot of random in between.  When I first decided a blog would be a part of my effort I envisioned it being my white lesbian version of the diary of a mad black women……so we will see how it goes.

thanks for reading!