Mr. Gay-Marriage-And-Nothing-Else-But-Gay-Marriage doubtlessly try to spin away from that characterization of a HuffPo piece, but if you’re single and/or trans and/or LGB or T and currently living somewhere that doesn’t provide access to the legal system for LGBTs to combat employment discrimination, that’s what he’s telling you.
Individuals?
You’re on your own.
“DOMA” harms married same-sex couples by withholding from them the more than one thousand federal responsibilities and protections of marriage accorded all other married couples — including Social Security survivor benefits, tax fairness, access to health coverage, and recognition of family ties for immigration purposes. Equally destructive, DOMA divides married Americans into two classes, those with marriages the federal government likes, and those who are married to someone of whom the federal government disapproves. And DOMA discriminates against states, telling them that even if they end marriage discrimination, the couples they legally married will be carved into two groups.
So?
Anti-trans political hate crimes like those perpetrated in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware harm married and unmarried trans individuals by withholding from them the fruits of the American capitalist economy that they worked and paid taxes to prop up prior to transitioning. Equally destructive, anti-trans political hate crimes like those perpetrated in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware divide LGBTs in those states into two separate and unequal classes: one that is completely at the mercy of the bigotry of the marketplace and the other actually able to be part of that bigotry of the marketplace while never having to give a damn about the fate of the other class and never having any need to given that LGBT political machinations in those states have forgotten about that other class and only give a damn about securing marriage for the already-privileged class.
The freedom to marry is important in building strong families and strong communities.
It doesn’t mean much if you’re a single gay man in Mississippi or Idaho or Oklahoma whose only overarching concern is how he’ll pay his bills – or where he’ll go – if he’s outed and the christianist psychopath he works for fires him.
And it doesn’t mean one fucking thing if you’re a trans woman in Nevada or Maryland or Delaware or New Hampshire who even the gays and lesbians can – and do – discriminate against whenever you try to even find shit jobs working for people of all sexual orientations who you are educationally and professionally superior to.
Educationally.
Professionally.
But, of course, not legally.
Remember this whenever you see an employed gay man or lesbian in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware: Not a damn one of them ever had to honestly compete against a trans person for the position that he or she holds.
What?
You don’t like how I phrase that?
Well then…
Make giving up the special rights you immorally exercise in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware – and not the diversion of political capital away from the political needs trans people in those states (not to mention all LGBT individuals in the states that have no state gay rights law of any kind) toward your desire for gay marriage – your number one priority.
In the United States, we don’t have second-class citizens…
Tell that to trans people who live in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware.
Of course, a mouthpiece like Wolfson probably would tell them that – and with a straight face.
Pun intended.
[Cross-posted at ENDABlog]
