Make a Stand

So, if you take my title literally, then you may assume that this is one of those how-to-do-it-by-yourself-without-cutting-off-an-appendage blogs, and they ARE out there. I would start by having you decide upon the type of stand you want to make, choose your wood, call Bob Vila for advice, etc... But I don't want you to make that kind of stand. I want you to make one like the President of these here United States did today. I want you to make a stand on the issue of gay rights.

Before that day last year, I didn't know. Before that day, I was fine being in the shadows. Before that one day, I had not taken a stand. Innocuous joke here or there, unfettered opinion on this or that. It didn't pertain to me. But since that day, my eyes have been opened. The jokes, it turns out, were not so innocuous. My opinions, weren't opinions at all. You see, that day, was the day my son told me he was gay. Did it change my life? You betcha. In a good way? Undoubtedly.

Gay, straight, bent, happy, sad, black, white, rich, poor, with, without...it doesn't matter. One should be entitled to the same freedoms and rights as the guy in the house next to you. And how do we define those rights and freedoms? With a thousand year old book, or with a constitution? Me, I go for the constitution. It's too bad that half of the country sees it the other way around. Like the good folks in North Carolina. And one dubious individual named James Komaniecki.

If you haven't heard of JMK, let me fill you in. He is the president of a little group called RestoreAmericanLiberty.com And he likes to sign his emails with the following signature: Defending Freedom, Judeo-Christian Values and Conservative Principles. Well, I'll give him the conservative principles part. But defending freedom? What a joke. Who's freedom? Not my sons that's for sure. Being an outspoken homophobe intent on keeping freedoms away from a percentage of the population isn't exactly what I would call a "defense". And the Christian Values part? I'd like to invite all of my Christian readers to weigh in with a comment below answering the following question: do your Christian values equate more to my view on gay rights, or JMK's? Do you side with the outdated ramblings of the bible on this issue, or with the principles this country was founded on? I want you to make a stand.

I wish I had the time and space to share with you the email stream that I have had going with JMK for a while now. I can summarize here by saying that he believes that being gay is a lifestyle choice, and that one can be cured from this "malady." He even had some of his Komaniecki-ites weigh in with their opinions. They feared that I had given in an allowed my son this immoral behavior. Well I will tell you this. It is not my son's future that I have any fear about. But it is the future of the offspring of these homophobic hate spreaders that I fear. Afraid that one generation is passing on their bigotry to the next. Afraid that among them, lurks a gay teen too brainwashed by his own parents to come out and be who he or she is. Imagine a young gay child, coming to terms with his own sexuality, that in itself being a mountain to overcome. But also knowing that if his or her parents knew, they would at best try and convert him back, or at worst, abandon them. That is the person I am afraid for. Why do you think the rate of suicide among gay teens has reached the epidemic level that it has? Bullying for one. But I am pointing right at the parents for that one.

I will admit one thing here, that the bible is the reason we have marriage in the first place. But somewhere along the way, a country was born. Rights and freedoms were established. Somehow, though, one seemed to have an effect on the other, and throughout the years, has had its foot on the throat of the other. What is it exactly are the JMK's of the world afraid of? Nobody wants to turn you into a gay man. They just don't want you to tell them how to live there own life, a life you can't possibly comprehend. At one point, I couldn't either. But now I do, and I will go to my grave trying to put people like James Komaniecki in their place.

I want to end this by doing what I do best, quoting a line from some movie I have seen too many times. At the end of Along Came Polly, one of the characters pulls aside a guy and tells him something like, "It's not about where you're going or where you've been. It's about the ride for Christs sake." Enjoy the ride. Be happy. Be yourself. It's the golden rule, do unto others. That's in the bible, right? And for Christs sake, be kind to thy fellow human being. After all, God made us all in His image, not James Komeniecki's.