By the time you set out for your ride in 2004, San Francisco had already begun marring gay and lesbian couples and Massachusetts was on the verge. How did this impact your ride the second year?
The SF marriages really energized us. That whole community was united in hope and enthusiasm. We felt that we were able to carry the positive energy from SF to all of the communities we visited in America’s heartland who needed to have some of that hope….
We see the election results in that 11 of 11 states have passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. What does this mean for the fight for marriage equality?
The message we should take from this election is that we have much more work to do. The most important thing we can spend our time doing is to educate around the issue of equal marriage. Rainbow Law has organized an “Equality through Education Campaign.” For one project in the campaign we are asking the gay and lesbian community to send us their photos toRainbow Law at photos@RainbowLaw.com and their stories to stories@RainbowLaw.com. We will submit the photos and stories to LGBT artists who will create visual works of art that will be exhibited in the red states as a way to introduce gay and lesbian families to America.
Visibility is the theme and we believe visibility will set us free. Other projects include speaking (with other LGBT couples and families when they are willing and available) in red states and arranging for A Time to Ride to be shown in as many places as possible. We need to educate America in order to counteract the lies that are being told about the marriage issue and about gay and lesbian families. Most people think they do not know a gay or lesbian family because many of us – especially in the red states – live in the closet.
We need to become more visible and let our “normal” lives speak for themselves so that people will know there is not now nor has there ever been a reason to fear us. We need to educate America about “marriage” and make sure that people understand the difference between sex and marriage. People who are grossed out by the thought of “gay sex” are voting against equal marriage because they do not consider that sex and marriage are separate issues! Gay and straight people can have all the sex they want to have outside of marriage – and they do! Marriage is a special status that people reserve for one person they want to love, protect and cherish for life – whether or not they have sex with that person (think of Christopher Reeves and other instances of people who marry without sex – when they take their vows, nuns “marry” Christ, etc.).
