Why my civil rights should NOT be on your ballot today

I am grateful for the lawmakers in states around this beautiful and broken country who have the compassion and courage to lift up legislation that just might recognize some of my sisters and brothers as full citizens. I am also prayerful that those states will see the light of love filter in through voting booths. I am thankful for those of you who will raise your voice, and hopefully the consciousness of your communities for all of our sakes. But know this…my family’s rights should not be left up to the whims of the masses. Sometimes the in-breaking of justice must be vigorously fought for by the few who have been to the mountain top.

Simply stated, civil rights of one group have not been, and will not be given through a popular vote. If civil rights were historically decided by a vote then those who could vote would have ensured that I would be standing in line to do just that. If civil rights are left to the masses to decide then I would not be crowded in line in a soggy middle school in the inner city of Atlanta, GA amidst a glorious sea of color.

One other teeny weeny reason my CIVIL rights should not be on the ballot is that the United States of America is not a theocracy.

But vote we must eh?

This quote from Susan Thistlethwaite helps me get to the polls today: “My Christian faith teaches me that history is a struggle between good and bad, between selfishness and generosity, between cruelty and compassion, and thus between right and wrong. I think an uncritical equivalence, whether political or theological, hides this struggle.
You have to choose.” (Thank you Anne Howard for lifting up her voice this week).

As does this clarion call from David Foster Wallace: “If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don’t bullshit yourself that you’re not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.” (Thank you Kate Colussy-Estees for sharing this important quote).

So vote I shall.

Today, though I’m not certain that our current president will see his way to lead with courage and confidence to grant equal rights for all people everywhere, I am certain, with intuition humming deep in my middle-age bones (oh, and the fact that I read), that Mr. Romney will never move on my behalf. He has made it clear that I matter less because I am a woman, a working-class mamma and a lesbian. Today, if the best I can do is vote for the possibility of love and justice unfettered then that is enough.

I pray others will do the same.