National Equality March

I am going to be joining thousands and thousands on the lawn of the Mall in Washington DC for an event of a lifetime. We're going to march for our equal rights. The equal rights of all of us with different sexual orientations or gender identities.

What are we fighting for?

Freedom from discrimination at work same as race, gender and religion - ENDA
Freedom to enjoy all the rights hetersexual couples enjoy - Repeal of DOMA
Freedom of servicemen to serve their country - Repeal of DADT

and many other freedoms that others take for granted because they happen to be born without a gene that makes them desire others of their same gender.

I was born in an LDS home to an older father and a young mother. After 35 gruelling years of trying to change what I thought might be a psychologically subconscious "choice", I could no longer deny the hard fact that this is who I am. For a human being to "be themselves" (as so many people told me to do and who later wanted to punish me for doing so), is one of the most honorable things you can do for your self and for others. I want people to know the "real me" and not a "fake me". I don't like pretending all day at work. They don't like it really either because I hurt and mock what they are. Despite a lot of people not liking people like me, I rather be true than popular or "liked". It's not easy to do. The popular way is the easy way out but not the right way. That is one thing that has stuck with me from the beginning and it's the truth.

The church offered me two choices: Marry or Be Celibate. In the first case, I had to either undergo some therapy of which there is no knowledge or success in or lie to my spouse and in the other case, I'd die a lonely man who never loved. I went for longer than most boys my age when it came to love. The hypocrisy is hard to live beside but I wanted to do the right thing and bear with it. Finally, I realized that even the leadership had a double standard too. That was too much. It finally blew away the house of gilded cards and I saw the naked truth which was that there was no great Truth within their ivory towers. It was a lie to enslave people in subtle ways. All they while, the accusation was that anyone who stood up to them were doing the same thing. I soon learned to walk my own path and I have not looked back.

So this Sunday, I will join with many other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered and others to speak up for the equal treatment we've long waited for; no, that we're truly tired of waiting for. Justice is what I live for and will die for. I will however fight all the way before I ever give up. I am fighting also so that my daughter will be able to understand her father and not look down on him.

I was married between ages 26 and 36 for ten years in denial and during that time, I had a wonderful gift of a daughter. Being that I am gay, I feel restricted in being able to ever care for her should anything happen to her mother. Some cannot adopt. I may not be able to provide a stable home for my daughter because I'm denied that bond that heterosexual couples can make legally that allows for stability in the home. I may not be able to provide a stable home because I may not be able to find an employer who is tolerant enough to forego their current legal right to fire me on the grounds of who I am. This is a right that infringes on my pursuit of happiness and livelihood and ability to make a living...merely based on the cells in my brain or the crook in my eyebrow.

I'm hoping for full genetic diversity and rights in the workplace some day so that *no one* will ever be fired for who they are, what they were born with, and things that cannot be chosen.