Positive Liberty

It’s a simple choice.

If the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment passes, my husband and I are leaving. We will go to Canada, to France, to the Netherlands, or to any country that will take two highly educated people who are willing to work for a living. I suspect that we won’t be alone. Anything would be better than remaining in a land whose founding document includes a declaration of war upon us. It is possible to live amid the unthinking discrimination of historical custom, even while working to end the old bigotries. But a recent and hateful addition to the fundamental law of the land can not be endured.

Am I unpatriotic? Absolutely not. I adore the United States. We–get this–we Americans invented the gay rights movement. For that alone I love my country. I love freedom of religion, and the free market, and the ability to say whatever I damn well please on the Internet. Come to think of it, we gave the world the Internet, too. We’re the cleverest, most independent-minded, most spirited and most enterprising people in the world. America has always been a land of opportunity and a home to the oppressed. If the FMA passes, though, I won’t be able to call myself an American any longer. “America” won’t mean what it used to mean.

I love America so much that I’ve got tears streaming down my cheeks right now… Go ahead, laugh if you want, but it’s true. Maybe only right-wingers are allowed to go wrapping themselves in the flag, but I don’t really care. It’s times like these, when the very idea of “America” is threatened, that everyone must be a patriot.

When Louis XIV declared in 1685 that one must be Catholic to be French, tens of thousands of French Protestants left the country. They were among the most affluent and hardworking of his subjects, and they went to Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. All three of them prospered at France’s expense. When the Nazis came to power, the United States received a large cohort of Jewish intellectuals with Albert Einstein at their head. Would that we had taken more! Freedom-lovers of all persuasions fled the Soviet Union, and the loss of their talents contributed richly to that state’s demise. I will not enjoy leaving America, but ask yourself: Would you tell a Jew to remain in Nazi Germany?

And is our situation any different? What if you’re reading this and happen to be straight? You say that you don’t really care? Don’t kid yourself. You have gay friends, family members, and co-workers, and the president is attacking them directly. Nor would an amendment against gay marriage be the end of the issue; it would be only the beginning. Emboldened by their success, the fundamentalists will not stop there. Americans–straight Americans–would soon find their own rights eroded too. Abortion, the teaching of evolution, even contraception might be next. We would continue to slide toward a Christian theocracy, and the chances are good that your own brand of Christianity won’t be the one in power. Gay rights may be the leading edge of American freedom, and the leading edge may always be controversial, but the fundamentalist agenda will not end when gay rights have been denied.

It is said that in the 2000 election, one million gay people voted for George W. Bush. Is there even one gay person who would vote for him now? If you are gay, register and vote. Call your elected officials, write letters to the newspapers at all levels, and talk to your neighbors. Do you want America to remain your country? Then exercise your rights, show your patriotism, and win it back.

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