Okay, before I even start, I'm going to apologize right now to the entire gay community for selling out and finally revealing the Gay Agenda. I know, we've denied it for so long, but "they" caught on to us a long time ago. So it's time to face the music. I'm tired of hiding behind the facade, so I'm going to break the silence and just do it. So without further ado, here is the Gay Agenda.

• We want a place to live where we feel safe and secure.
• We want to buy a house or rent an apartment/condo/home in the neighborhood of our choice.
• We want to have children. (Well, some of us do anyway...)
• We want to raise our children according to our faith/values/beliefs.
• We want to send our children to schools that are free from violence, that have competent teachers who treat our children with respect yet still maintain discipline in the classrooms.
• We want our children to grow up to be respectful, contributing members of society.
• We want to volunteer to be a Scout leader to help foster the values these wonderful programs teach. [NOTE: Nowhere in any of the Boy Scout programs from Tiger Cubs up through Eagle Scout is orientation of ANY sort mentioned or taught.]
• We want to see the sparkle in our children's eyes on Christmas/Yule/Hannukah (forgive me for not knowing the religious holidays of all the other faiths) or their birthday.
• We want to see our babies' first steps, first smile, first tooth, and all the other firsts.
• We want to adopt children who are in need of a loving home.
• We want to go out for dinner every once in a while to unwind from the hectic day we just had and to have courteous service.
• We want to be involved in community activities that nurture our children and foster a sense of brotherhood among neighbors.
• We want to go to a church/synagogue/temple/mosque to worship the Creator as we see fit.
• We want to serve in the military, to protect our country and our freedoms.
• We want to be involved in politics so that we can help shape the policies of our nation on the local, state and national levels.
• We want to be doctors, nurses, teachers, ministers, lawyers, sales clerks, fast food workers, construction workers, CEO's, bank tellers, cashiers, truck drivers, entertainers, business owners or any other occupation that tickles our fancy or suits our abilities.
• We want a job where our income and continued employment is based on our skills, our competence and our ability to contribute to the company for which we work.
• We want to sit around the office on coffee breaks and tell everyone what we did with our partners over the weekend.
• We want our environment to be clean so that our children and our children's children for generations on end can enjoy the beauty and the bounty of nature.
• We want to support the causes we believe in.
• We want to register as a Democrat, Republican, independent, Libertarian, Communist or whatever party best fits our political ideals.
• We want to pay reasonable taxes to support the services supplied by the government. (Okay, we don't really want to, but we realize it's necessary.)
• We want to dance at weddings and graduations and other celebrations with the one we love.
• We want to apply for loans based on both our incomes.
• We want to grow old and retire with the love of our life.
• We want to know that if we were to die, the love of our life will inherit our estate if we had no will.
• We want to know that if we are medically incapacitated that the love of our life will be able to make legal decisions.
• We want to know that if we have to be hospitalized for any length of time that the love of our life can come to visit us.
• We want to be able to legally marry the person we love with all our heart, all our soul, all our being if we so choose.
• We want to see everyone in the country treated with justice and equality. (We'd actually like to see it that way in the whole world, but we'll work on one country at a time.)
• We want world peace.
• We want to go out to a bar for a drink and not be assaulted on the way to our cars.
• We want to know that our children can't be taken away simply because our neighbor doesn't like who we love.
• We want to work in day care centers, schools, nurseries, etc. without having to first prove we're NOT a pedophile. (Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?")
• We want to go to the doctor/dentist of our choice and not be turned away because they don't like who we love.
• We want to be able to walk down the street holding hands or arm and arm without fear of being beaten, called derogatory names, spit upon or harrassed.
• We want to check into a hotel and not be given a room with two single beds just because we're both the same gender.
• We want to go to school and not find obscentities spray painted on our lockers.
• We want to send our kids to school and not worry that they're going to get beat up because of who their parents are.

So there you have it. We're still working on getting the exact order down since it seems a bit disjointed, but you know how politics goes. Every member on the committee has their own pet cause and wants that listed first, so chances are that this is the order it will be in for a while yet. You'd think after all this time they'd have reached some sort of compromise, but then again, it's been more than 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation and some states STILL fly the union jack....

But now, on a serious note, this past week, we in the US celebrated Memorial Day— a day to honor all those who died fighting for our country when duty called. These souls paid the ultimate price— their very lives— to uphold the principles of this nation. To protect the freedoms and rights that are guaranteed us in the US Constitution— freedoms and rights that, unfortunately, don't all apply to you if you happen to be gay.

I've visited the Wall in Washington, DC twice now. The first time (before I came out as a gay woman even to myself), when I touched that black marble wall engraved with the names of the dead and missing, I cried. I didn't know anyone (then) that had served in Viet Nam. I didn't lose anyone I loved over there. My father was too old to be drafted and my brothers were too young. I'm really not even sure I can put into words why I cried. I'm not sure I know the real reasons myself. The second time I visited the Wall was with my wife. I looked at the more than 56,000 names engraved there and once again felt the tears start to flow.

Later, it dawned on me that, statistically, 5,600 of them were gay. Men and women who gave their lives in service of their country despite the fact that their country treats them as second class citizens and denies them two (and sometimes all) of the unalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Sacrificing one's life for a nation that respects your rights and allows you the freedom to love whom you choose and marry whom you choose, that guarantees you fairness in employment opportunities, housing, and education, that protects you from harrassment and violence and discrimination— such a sacrifice is understandable, even though we wish it were not necessary. But what causes someone to make such a sacrifice for a country where they're NOT treated like that?

My guess, and it's only a guess because those who made that sacrifice can't tell me whether I'm right or not, is hope: hope that through their sacrifice, others won't have to undergo the same treatment. Hope that someday, the people of this great nation will understand that gays want the same things that straights want— the right to live their life as they see fit as long as they're not hurting anyone else. The ONLY thing that makes gays different from straights is who they love. There are gays in every socioeconomic class, every occupation, every age, race, faith, height, weight, nationality and country in the world. Always has been, always will be.

In a nation that claims to honor and respect individual rights, whose very constitution is written to protect the rights of the individual from the whims of popular or majority opinion, in a nation that decries the human rights violations of other nations worldwide— to have the government of that nation making laws about who you can and cannot love is so sadly and ironically tragic.

©1998-2013 Rainbow's End Press
All graphics on all pages are created by Rainbow's End Press unless noted otherwise. Written permission from Rainbow's End Press must be secured for use of any graphics contained on these pages. For problems with this website, please email the webmistress.