One step closer to equal rights for the LGBTQ communityJennifer Tanko 15 October 2009 [Online Editors’ Note: This article was published in The Towerlight on 15 October 2009 (p. 5). While the author might not be herself a libertarian, we felt this article may be of interest to libertarian student readers, and thus are including it here.] Around this time last week, I had a conversation with someone I know only from the Internet. His life is complicated; he attends a small community college in Colorado and he is transgendered. His campus has no lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning-related student groups, and he is the only trans person he knows of in his region and is continuously My naïveté was apparent when I became perplexed about his lack of community. I’m currently preparing for this semester’s drag show, where I’ll be performing as “Juan Spanko” to a community that embraces events like these. Although there’s always room for improvement, I have truly realized that we students at Towson University are privileged to attend an institution where there is a large and active Queer Student Union, a movement for transgender bathrooms on campus and even a minor in LGBT Studies. Furthermore, having this conversation the week of the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. left me feeling empowered. An estimated 250,000 people flocked to D.C. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10–11, to demand equal rights in all fifty states, and my friends and I were among them. Many of the signs and sentiments carried similar themes of acknowledging that gay and straight people have many more similarities than differences, calling for an end to hatred and personally challenging President Obama to support equal rights measures. I spent a good portion of the line-up for the march tweeting some of the more interesting signs I saw: “Lady Gaga Accepts Me,” “We Hold These Truths to be Really Frickin’ Obvious” and “No More Miss Nice Gay” were among them, along with my favorite, a sign held by a little boy that he clearly made himself bearing the slogan “Boys Can Marry Boys.” The atmosphere was absolutely beautiful. I find LGBTQ-related events like this one are usually a lot friendlier than other movements, and I watched this positive attitude spread to civilians on the streets of D.C. in the form of smiles, waves and gestures of support. The day really got good when the march essentially did a U-turn to get to the Capitol building, and it dawned on my group how big this crowd was when we couldn’t find a beginning or an end to our fellow marchers. Only time will tell where this march will fit into history, but with the success of a march that mainstream politicians declared would fail could represent a turning point in this movement. Thanks to high-visibility events like this, it’s likely that more and more Americans realize that LGBTQ individuals are not going to shut up and go away without equal protection under the law. As Christine Quinn, an openly gay member of the New York City Council said in her speech on Capitol Hill, “Look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person than you are.“ Forcing the people defending our soil into the closet with policies like “don’t ask, don’t tell” will not cut it. Separate but equal measures like civil unions will not cut it. Federal policy that doesn’t protect LGBTQ people against hate crimes will not cut it. [Online Editors’ Note: We, the College Libertarians of Towson, respectfully disagree with Ms. Tanko’s support for so-called “hate-crime” legislation, as we believe such legislation promotes inequality, rather than the equality all persons deserve.] With this march, we have come so much closer to insuring equality between all American citizens. So happy it’s Coming Out Week. As more and more individuals become empowered to organize and be visible for their own rights and the rights of others, we will foster an environment where people will be freer to be exactly who they are, from Towson University to rural Colorado. |
dealing with a faculty and student body that has remarkably little knowledge about issues regarding gender identity for this day in age.