Last year we had a significant loss in California to Prop. 8. This November we had another startling loss in Maine with Question 1. Now on the heels of our most recent loss in New York I have to ask the public, have you seen enough yet that you might want to get involved? How much does it take before people stand up and voice themselves? When is enough finally enough and motivates those involved? Are people of the GLBT community actually convinced that their rights should be up for vote? Do people think that in the single instance of GLBT equality we should forgo the rational premise that we are all afforded the dignity our actions should warrant us?
Perhaps people who see the value of full equality for all people are simply ahead of their time. Perhaps it will take generations more for people to realize that we all deserve due process, which includes the fairness of being looked at as an individual rather than merely a part of a malevolent group.
If you are a part of the GLBT community or love someone that is you then have a responsibility to protect what you love by standing up for it. Our safety is still at risk when we are out in public even in such friendly places as Provincetown as seen in the Barry Scott case back in 2007. It is hard to hear our opponents twist the truth and tell the public lies about our "special" rights when we don't even have safety in our homelands.
I believe Abraham Lincoln put it best when he once said:
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Such is the fate of the GLBT community should we falter and decide that we have come along enough, because our enemies will not sleep. We will lose to them because we didn't care enough to make our voices heard and we did not do our part as Rowdy Citizens like those who came before us.
This nation is hungry for leadership that it can be proud of, but most of all it needs its citizens to stop giving excuses for their lack of participation and be a part of the process. This takes no heroic effort, it simply requires us to be involved enough to know when something is wrong and having the gumption to speak openly of it.