by: 
tsefer
tseferSunday, October 18, 2009 at 1:09:00 AM EDT
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It has been 11 years since Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered. For the past 11 days I have been remembering and reminiscing on Matthew Shepard, how much work has been done since 1998, and how much work has yet to be done.
Eleven days ago, on October 6th I first thought about how it has been eleven years since Matt was kidnapped. I definitely took a long hard look at all of my Queer friends and felt really grateful that a majority of them have never been physically assaulted because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; and I felt grateful that I still had the ones with me that had encountered harassment or physical violence because of those factors.
I am lucky enough to live in Chicago where there is a huge LGB-T-Q community in relation to most conservative towns around the nation. On October 12th, Tectonic Theater Project released The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, a play based on the interviews of the people of Laramie, Wyoming, ten years after Matthew Shepard’s death. It was a reflection and an evaluation of the change and progress that has happened since 1998. I won’t go into details about the play and what was really uncovered; you can read about that in Culture_Voyeur’s Blog, Matthew’s Impact. But, I will tell you about my experience.
Here in Chicago, the play was read at the Goodman Theatre and it was done in collaboration with About Face Theatre Company. I have worked with About Face for almost two years now as a part of the youth theatre. As I sat with my friends, a.k.a. my fellow ensemble members, we started out joyful and joking, happy to be reunited again. But, after the first Act we understood that our work has just begun. We sat together holding hands, a friend of mine sitting in my lap, and we cried together.
As young people, we have a lot to deal with during our life times. Homophobia is just one aspect in relation to the economy, global warming, HIV/AIDS, the list goes on. But, we work hard nevertheless, educating our peers, trying to change minds. Sometimes, it just gets overwhelming to know how much we have left to do.
I am the president of my school’s Gay Straight Alliance: Students Understanding Diverse Sexuality (SUDS). At SUDS we do a lot of different work including fundraising and outreach and anything we can. Last Thursday on October 15th, we watched Tectonic’s TheLaramie Project. For many of the people in the club, they did not know who Matthew Shepard was, or what had happened to him. It made me sad to know that even people a year or two younger than I, do not know what happened. Nevertheless, the movie left everyone teary-eyed. We stopped the movie and talked about how everyone felt. One person even confessed that they had used the word “faggot” as a synonym for “stupid” without realizing its impact, which we then went into great detail to explain why it was hurtful and wrong. Everyone left the meeting feeling pretty down.
Two days later, on October 17th, it was the Chicagoland Matthew Shepard Rally and March in Boystown. (For those of you who don’t know, we have an entire part of the city, called Boystown, that is very, very gay, in simple terms.) As I arrived at the rally with a couple of my friends, SUDS’ members, and my sister, I took a look around. It was all the same faces that I had always seen at every LGB-T-Q event. Yes, we do have a fairly large turnout but nevertheless, it’s the same people.
Then we started to march.
The point of the march is to remember Matthew Shepard and the violence that happened to him and that happens to this day to LGB-T-Q people around the country and world. However, Queer rights always seem to get muddled together. It wasn’t long before the chants of “Hey-hey-ho-ho-homophobia’s go to go” turned into “Obama-Obama, let mama marry mama.”
I won’t deny it, I participated in the chants and I even started a couple promoting same-gender marriage. But, the more protests and rallies I go to, the more that they have become solely focused on marriage.
I completely support same-gendered marriage and am an advocate for it. But, I still feel that we need to think about all the other aspects of LGB-T-Q life.
What about health care?
Immigration?
Violence in schools?
Violence at work?
Violence in the streets?
What about Matt and what happened to him? We need to remember him. We need to remember Lawrence King and Sakia Gunn, and the countless others who have had their lives and safety compromised because of homophobia and transphobia.
LGB-T-Q rights do have to deal with same-gender marriage. But, what about basic safety? We have a lot of work to do. I feel the pressure on myself personally working as an ally to all LGB-T-Q people out there.
I just want everyone to come out. Come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex-come out as everything or nothing, just come out. And most importantly come out as an ally. The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network’s annual Ally Week Starts Monday, October 19th and the objective of it is for everyone to come out as an ally and interfere in homophobic and transphobic language and actions. Remember Matthew, remember Lawrence, remember Sakia, remember your friends and family, and remember this blog.
We have a lot of work to do, but we can do it. And we will.
We have a lot of work to do, but we can do it. And we will.
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I think that the reason a lot of LGBTQ advocates focus on marriage is because if marriage is okay, then how could work-place discrimination or restrictions on adoption be okay? It sort of seems to cover other issues. Plus, with such a large youth base to LGBTQ activism, the right to marry seems so obvious. Why focus on just work-place discrimination when you could focus on marriage? I understand why some people think differently and want to advocate for equal rights in baby steps...but I personally think there's no downside to fighting for marriage now. It's what we want, so it's what we should ask for.