Equal rights are not special rights.

[judecorp]

I was telling my Jennifer today that it seems like so long ago that people's basic needs were being met well enough, and things were stable enough, that we could debate and write legislation about things like same-sex marriage. Now I can't even imagine getting something started about that - it seems like small potatoes given the other gross injustices I see right now.

Or maybe that's because I'm in the shelter now, and not at a Big Gay Job. Who knows?

Comments

[grrlpower.livejournal.com]

aww, you're in a shelter? poor thing -- I had no idea!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

With what they pay me, it's close. =P

[luloubelle.livejournal.com]

I had a dream last night that I met you at an Indigo Girl's concert. Cute!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha, awesome. :)

The Girl and I are looking for a spring road trip. Maybe...

[juliann.livejournal.com]

I suspect it is highly linked to your working in the shelter. When you were in a Big Gay Job (tm) you weren't really around people whose /basic/ needs were unmet. You could fight the injustices of yuppie middle class people. Now you are enmeshed with people doing the day-to-day struggle AND you are keenly aware of how the few dollars available to help good causes are being distributed. When I was working with human rights organizations in college I used to feel *guilty* when the theater department got donations. Not to say that the theatre department didn't need them, but ya know, people in prison versus new costumes.....

On a micromanaging level, I suspect you will never see fundraising the same again.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I think you're definitely right in that the work that I'm doing has my brain more focused on other things. I certainly don't have time, not during the work day, to think about things like domestic partner benefits (except when I think about my own health care plan or whatever).

But what I really meant, and didn't convey well I guess, is that right now I can't even really think about political action involving these sorts of things when there are bigger, scarier things in my space. Most of my personal letter-writing and preaching (hee!) efforts are currently involving war and cutting the budget to social services. It's almost like I've forgotten that I used to write letters begging my legislators not to approve so-and-so to the Ohio court, or asking about same-sex marriage, or other things like that. Now it's like I can't be bothered.

I almost don't know what's going on in those areas. It's as if we used to have a foundation where I felt comfortable that people would be alive, and eating, and having basic needs met... and now I'm not sure that's going to happen. I keep waiting for all social service budgets to be cut to pay for the rebuilding of Iraq. :(

I hear Hilton Head I beautiful this time of year...

[pica-nc.livejournal.com]

I'm not in a Big Gay Job, either. It's not even a Little Gay Job. Shit, it isn't even a Passively Bisexual or I Have Same-Gender Dreams Occasionally Job. But I know what you mean... I work with a ton of kids who's basic needs are met through either myself or the system. I find it almost trivial to fight for my own interests some days...

Re: I hear Hilton Head I beautiful this time of year...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

This cracked me up: Shit, it isn't even a Passively Bisexual or I Have Same-Gender Dreams Occasionally Job. Tee hee!

I would love to go to Hilton Head. Oh yes. Le sigh.

Keep up the good work. You are doing good things out there in NC.

yeah...

[vorpalbla.livejournal.com]

I feel very much the same some times about my freethought activism. It's a serious question.

We recently hired our first full-time staffer. One of the things I liked most about him was that he brought up the question, "How will this work help a poor kid in E. St. Louis or a war-torn part of Africa?" What he was saying is that in the long term, activists in different fields have to tie their work together or become obsolete. That they have failed to do so is evidenced by the antipathy between gay activists and the Columbus black community about which I keep on reading.

There is no easy answer for these questions. Human rights activism should mean supporting the right to same-sex marriage and religious liberty, but it should also mean supporting everyone's right to food, clothing, health care, and housing. I like Eleanor Roosevelt's quote, "The first freedom of man, I contend, is the freedom to eat."

Seriously, let's remember how much domestic and international issues tie together. A client asked me this morning if I thought services would be cut because of the war. I didn't know what to tell him.

Re: yeah...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I think you're absolutely right. I think people who claim to champion human rights should be championing (is that a word?) ALL human rights - the right to dignity, respect, and equality, of course, which encompasses having food, shelter, adequate medical care, etc. And if we, as a society or as a nation, truly believed in "liberty and justice for all," would we really NEED human rights activism?

I think for a lot of people, it's easier to espouse oneself to one issue and just vote and act accordingly. I don't understand those people - I mean, if we acknowledge that people are complex, how can voting down one issue be sufficient? I mean, just because someone is gay or pro-choice or female or whatever doesn't mean they don't have other agendas that one may not agree with. But I guess the bottom line is that people want to take the easy way out.

If President Bush is still proposing his enormous tax cut, while at the same time pushing through a bill authorizing $100+ billion dollars to bomb and rebuild Iraq, I'd say it's pretty certain that we can kiss social services, even as meagre as we know them now, goodbye.

I was reading in transientdyke's journal yesterday. She has an interesting commentary about how Bush claims this war is about the people of Iraq, how they have no rights, how they're being abused, how they're not being taken care of. And then he goes so far as to want to spend LOTS AND LOTS of tax money to champion THEIR rights. At the expense of ours.