This election can't come quick enough for me and I think, our nation.
Polar opposites are staring each other down right across the streets that we walk and drive.
Campaign signs have sprung up in every place imaginable. Street corners are so filled with these signs that the message is I think watered down. I have no idea who many of these people running for office are or even if they are haggling for my specific vote. They are just red, white and blue pollution to the eyes that we will soon forget. When they are on street light poles it's easy to not place them in the political context that they are meant for.
Being in Pomona, the Lincoln Park area has always seemed to turn it's back on the rest of the city. It is an oasis of beautiful vintage homes that call to a certain kind of person that wants to live in them. Lincoln Park people, to me, are similar to Phillips Ranch people, who like to think that they are not part of the crime riddled city that is nationally known as a gang filled mecca of problems.
Walking around my neighborhood I see these campaign signs that spring up every election in yards and shake my head. This year I am both shocked and yet not surprised how many McCain/Palin signs there are in my neighborhood. People that have paid big money to move into Lincoln Park seem to be a more conservative and church going crowd. I can live with that. I have to live with that.
My point in all this is the past couple of weeks the "vote yes on Prop 8" signs have started to show up in yards in Lincoln Park. When we take the dogs out for a walk we see a few more each night. I think they are being given out by the church that people go to. I guess I can also see some people seeking out these signs to do their part to protect marriage. Some of these signs have gone into yards of homes across the street. I can't tell you how pissed off I am by these signs staring me in the face when I walk around my area. It is all I can do to not kick these signs down, tear them up.
Mike and I have lived on Jefferson Avenue for three years now. We don't have crazy orgies and wear drag to mow the yard. From what I can see, the only evidence that we are gay is our rapier wit. Certainly we are not the leather wearing flamboyant people that are always shown on the news as representative of gay people. I seems these days, that if you went to a dictionary and look up "homosexual" you would see a picture of the Village People.
"Live your life as an example" is a motto that I have silently told myself for years. Living across the street from people that want to take away my rights really shows to me that assimilation doesn't really work. I feel that we need to remind them who we are. We are a couple that have been together so long that I have lost count (17 years I think) of years. We have a mortgage and three dogs. We are people that care about our home and our area.
We are your gay neighbors. Get to know us.
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5 comments:
well i must say that i couldn't agree with you more...i am also a gay man living in lincoln park, and even though i'm away in ky right now, frankly i'm shocked that those signs are appearing in my/our neighborhood!!! i find it disgusting that anyone in our area would entertain even the thought of having that sign in their yard, lincoln park was an excepting open place for anyone to live, or so i thought...democrat or republican makes no difference to me, that is someone's private personal information, and as far as i'm concerned everyone has the right to make that distinction as an individual...it amazes me that people use the extremely weak argument of the authenticity of marriage as a valid reason to even consider voting for a ban such as this...marriage for the most part is nothing but an institutional sham 90% of the time, and if any two people of any sex love each other enough to enter into a valid legally recgonized union, then i say more power to them...i'd like to know the percentage of traditional marriages that are even based in love, and not just the idea of that is what you are to do next when you are in a relationship, or someone gets knoced up, or some other non-exsistent love based reason? i feel the time has finally come when love of any kind can be celebrated and recognized between people who really want to make that statement...these people who have those signs in their yards don't have a perfect track record in the marriage area i'm sure, or at least members in their own families are in dismal marital situations, as are most heterosexual married people, so why they feel they can judge or have a say in what gay people do astounds me, but then again most people easily point fingers, and never look in their own mirror or back yard? well, i guess that's my opinion...i'll be home on october 29th, and hopefully i won't have to endure these idiotic signs/people for very long before the whole election mess is over!!! i'd love for anyone to come up to me and dare to say something about my being gay, because i would simply ask them about my disability that i was born with...because i feel/know they are both the same in my life...they are things i have no cotrol over, and they are two of the many things that make me the open minded, fabulous, diverse, caring, determined, truthful person i am...i love my life and all the challenges/elements that make me who and what i am!!!
The only thing that threatens heterosexual marriage is heterosexuals. You cheat and lie and break your vows continually. So get over yourselves, look in the mirror and fight the real enemy...YOU! And while you are at it, could you please teach your damn kids manners so everyone else can have a pleasant time at restaurants and theatres!!
We recently discussed prop 8 in my philosophy course (debates on sexuality)and the biggest argument for it was that marriage is a religious institution and that as a religious institution it should remain hetero and the state shouldn't be allowed to define religious institutions. My response is that because the state employs the word "marriage" in it's law it is no longer purely a religious institution because of separation of church and state. And so it is no longer a religious argument, it is a legal argument. unfortunately it was the night of the elections so polls were closed and the naysayers had already voted. I like to believe i helped enlighten a couple of folks. No one had a response after that.
I'm proud to say at least two of us here on Garfield still have our No on 8 signs up, and ours will stay up at least until I stop seeing Yes on 8 signs.
I hope your walks took you down the 500 block of E Alvarado St where you would have seen (by my determiniation) the highest concentration of "No on 8" signs in Lincoln Park. We are saddened and appalled at the voting results.
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