The Gay Problem

During marriage discussions, of late, I remember that, for me, this and all discussion about The Gay Problem is rooted in equality.

Our equality is not something that should ever be decided by voting. It's something that's inherent because we breathe.

A proposition I have forwarded for years is this: Unless and until we have full legal and civil equality, gay people are living under conditions that suggest taxation without representation.

Just like every citizen of the United States, gay people are required to contribute to society in general by paying taxes, building up social security, and paying property and other taxes.

But unlike its contract with other citizens, society enacts legal and cultural prohibitions against gay people that effectively prevent us from serving in the military, enacting family structures, holding various kinds of employment, inheriting property, and naming certain beneficiaries.

In many jurisdictions we cannot expect to obtain mortgages or business loans.

In certain jurisdictions we must transact our lives behind filmy but absurdly convoluted layers of secrecy in order to avoid physical harm and even death.

Our youth have no guarantee of a safe learning environment; there are more of them homeless on the streets than any other demographic.

In short, we are hidden in plain sight.

If that's where civil society and its laws wishes to place us and, for whatever reasons they wish to continue to do so, I say OKAY. BRING IT ON.

My Final Solution to The Gay Problem is Cut Me Loose.

I would love to put the funds I now pay into my local, state, and federal governments in another pot that I could use for my self sufficiency. Lord knows my standard of living would immediately improve by magnitudes.

I could say more but I'll stop here. I have a lot to do between now and tomorrow morning when my work week starts.

( I was away from home most of Friday night and all of Saturday helping, as a member of a committee I'm part of in my small town, to get ready for a community Veterans Day Supper. We fed 260 people - 66 of whom were veterans. The vets and their spouses were our guests for the dinner. After we finished with the dinner and cleaned up I came home and stayed up too late - I slept in really late this morning. I still have to get out my check book and pay my monthly bills and then get ready for a meeting at work where we'll discuss how we can implement economic development projects that we hope will improve conditions here in one of the poorest counties in the United States.)

All this to say that, as a citizen, I show up. Most of us do.

I'd like the hobnailed boot off my neck now, please.

Or, if that's not on America's Legal and Cultural Agenda, cut me loose.