Someone please explain to me what good marriage rights do when you and your partner can be legally fired for being queer.
I’m waiting.
Except there are people fighting the good fight for state ENDA’s, too - but it’s not as sexy as marriage equality so it doesn’t get the same kind of publicity.
Unfortunately, I believe that’s part of the problem.
The way that mainstream LGBT organizations present marriage equality as the final or even the most important hurdle facing LGBTQ people today only serves the interests of the most privileged members of LGBTQ communities (ie, romantic and familial relationships that most closely resemble middle-class White nuclear families), which means that it’s often at the expense of the least privileged members of LGBTQ communities. Since trickle-down civil rights works about as well as trickle-down economics, this has the effect of failing to protect and uplift those who are unable or unwilling to fit that norm. In practice, this means people who fit the following categories: poor, of color, trans, youth and the elderly, disabled, immigrant and/or undocumented, homeless, single, etc.
I believe that organizations like the Audre Lorde Project and Queers for Economic Justice have the right of it, in that any consenting adults who wish to marry should be able to do so, and: 1) the benefits currently associated with civil marriage should extend to everyone regardless of marital status, and 2) the bulk of our attention and resources should go toward supporting the most vulnerable members of our communities.
(Source: unnamednpc)
