Born to love

As I walked through the crowds protesting against the California Supreme Court's decision to up hold Proposition 8 in Long Beach, I was drawn to a mature heterosexual couple walking hand in hand with a sticker on their chest that read: "I DO."
Neither of John Eddy nor Nicole Street were gay or bi, nor were any of their children homosexual, but they felt compelled to participate in the rally.
"Because we support equality for everyone," said Street, a Long Beach resident.
The man and woman, who do have gay and lesbian friends, said fighting for freedom for all was enough to impact them directly.

After the interview Street shared this:


If I’d Been Born to Love a Woman


If I’d been born to love a woman
Or a man to love a man
Encouraged beyond reason
To feign an interest
To deceive
To try to make it work
It would be to suffer
On the inside
And in time, likely hurt the ones I love.


I’d struggle to fit in
In all the ways I could
Baffled
Filled with anxiety
And I’d be angry
Maybe at God
I hope I’d come to realize
I, too, am one of God’s beautiful creations.
I’d try to hold onto that image
Even when they called me “Sinner”


Striking from nowhere
Fangs pierce my flesh
Venom invades my veins
A victim
To destroy


Why?
They’d say
“Just making sport”


But snakes only bite when threatened
What are they afraid of?
With their rosy reptilian faces
Looking so innocent, so pure
As they recoil with loathing

I can hear them now:
Terminate their employment and for God’s sake,
keep them away from our children-kind of hatred
Beat him, tie him to a fence and leave him to die
like Mathew Shepard-kind of hatred


“Us---and them” mentality
Makes a haven for hate
Caustically mutating
Fear to intolerance
Superiority to persecution


Manipulate the system and you can justify anything…
History has taught us that “separate but equal”
Actually means unequal.


No you can’t go in
The decision’s not yours to make
You can’t adopt children
You have no benefits,
There is no choice
And there never will be a ring.


A whole second class
Wanting oneness
Focused on the big picture
Subjected to those little-picture people
Egocentric and shame based
Saying things like:
“How could you do this to me”,
“Where did I go wrong?”
And “God loves the person, He just hates the sin.”


But not to worry
I watched some program about a synagogue
That offers a course on how to un-gay yourself
Not kidding
And many churches
Purport to help you reform (or is that repent?)

So very Christ like
Man I’d run from that
I’d run and I’d keep running
Until I got to a place
Where I could be me
Where it’s safe to be who I am
(My friends might ask, “Are you talking this planet?)


I’d seek protection under the law
The law is impartial
I’d get fair treatment
I’d have rights
Then I’d wake up
And remember prop 8
When we made discrimination legal.


Back in the bondage of bigotry
Day of Decision
California Supreme Court
Upholds Prop 8, six to one


Our justice system allows a minority
To be squashed by a majority
That has to change


We all want a chance to live a beautiful life
Equal, not separate
Everyone equal


Each who is enlightened, enlightens another
And so there is reason to hope
Harvey Milk said
“We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets…”


Yes, but it is up to all of us
Not only gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer
Straight people too
Together
We are the anti-venom
--Nicole Martine Street