Going On the Public Record

Tuesday morning, folks are going to testify in front of the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on the marriage bill (that we're hopefully going to see pass this legislative session).

Ash and I took Noah with us earlier this week when we spoke with legislators about why the marriage bill and the gender-identity protection bills were each important to our family. But I'm not sure I can take him on my own to the hearing on Tuesday, and Ash cannot take a day off to spend with Noah.

I want to go on the public record, right now, in case it has not been blatantly obvious from my previous posts.

I support marriage equality in Maryland, throughout the United States and the rest of the world. I support EQUALITY for all people regardless of whatever it is that anti-equality folks come up with to make them seem different and scary and the other. I'm sick of the excuses from my political opponents who forgive my lack of respect for their views are seriously uninformed, misguided, and just plain on the wrong side of history here. I'm also sick of the silence of my allies and friends. People who don't want to be political or alienate anyone else. I will not shut up. I will not sensor myself. I will not make excuses for hate. That's just not how I roll.

I also recognize that while we may change some hearts, we will not realistically be able to break through to everyone, and that's okay. Ending the anti-miscegenation laws didn't make everyone love interracial couples, but it did mean that their ignorant hate-filled views no longer could be protected if they tried to hurt or discriminate against against people like our family.

I believe in love. Love allows me to wake up in the morning next to the man I love. Love allows me to cuddle with my toddler every day. Love allows us to hold our heads up whether other families love, like or want to tolerate our family or not.

I want Noah to know that his parents love him more than anything in the world and we are not taking this matter lightly. We're not taking it sitting down. We'll keep trying to fight for this issue this legislative session and in future sessions of the state and federal government.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - MLK

Hear me loud and clear, equal rights is not something that the majority should have the right to withhold from others.

Majority rule is a means for organizing government and deciding public issues; it is not another road to oppression. Just as no self-appointed group has the right to oppress others, so no majority, even in a democracy, should take away the basic rights and freedoms of a minority group or individual. -U.S. Department of State publication, Principles of Democracy

Read more here.

I will try to make it on Tuesday to testify if I can. Maybe I'll have a toddler in tow. He may be yelling, "Nurse, nurse, nurse!" as I try to speak, but we'll be there or here and we're not going to be silenced or bullied by hate. Especially not some hate group out of New Jersey. (Said group shall remain nameless but they keep calling my legislators from NJ since they don't have enough support in MD).

I'm going on the record to say, we as a family support love and equality under the law. Full equality not different fountains, words or privileges. And we're going to make sure that our state's laws land on the side of right. Not because we want it but because Marylanders deserve "Equal Justice Under Law" just like the pillars in Annapolis promise.