My Why.....

To protest or not to protest......this really is a no brainer!


Some of my friends have asked me why I want to get involved in the protests and possibly get arrested,  isn't there anything else that can be done to get the lawmakers attention?  I asked a previous Senator, the one leading these protests, and the community has tried everything.  But for me, even though I write my Representatives almost daily, it is about something more personal.

My daughter is openly Bisexual and in 8th grade in public school.  When my oldest son was in 9th grade, I chaperoned the 9th grade farewell dance.  I watched in shock as "straight" girls were dancing like strippers doing as good of a bump and grind as you might find at the night clubs adults go dancing in.  NO ONE said a thing.  But my son did not hang out with those "popular kids".  You know, the kids who played football or the cheer leaders.  He hung out with kind of an "outcast crew".  Among them, a lesbian couple.  This group of kids were minding their own business and having a great time.  When my son's group finally convinced the two lesbians to kiss. I watched this from my perch.  It was a sweet kiss.  It was not tonsil wrestling and nothing inappropriate.  These two girls genuinely cared for each other.

What happened after that not only angered these teenagers, It angered me beyond words!  The other parents from across the cafeteria and the VP of the school were "shocked" and "mortified".  The VP came zipping across the gym, took the two young ladies outside into the courtyard to berate them.  My son's friends were fuming and ready to form an angry mob.  I calmed them down.  I told them that would not help.  I asked them to step away from the door.  (It was , after all, my job to keep them safe and out of trouble.) I told them that I would take care of things. I would not let this kind of discrimination happen.  I told my son, to talk to the girls and if they wanted my help, to come and talk to me.

The girls were so upset.  The VP of the school and given them some pretty big threats.  Not just for the rest of the dance but in school in general.  And yes, they would like my help.  The very next day, I was on the phone with the school board asking for the name of the person in charge of dealing with discrimination in the schools.  I also called the ACLU.  Guess what?  LGBT was an unprotected class.   I also wrote the Principal of the school explainging how outraged I was at what had happened.

These girls had not been bumping and grinding inappropriately.  As a matter of fact, all night long they kept pretty far apart if they couple danced at all.  What they did do was share a simple kiss of true affection.  Why were they picked out of a whole cafeteria filled with kids dancing completely inappropriately?  Because they were lesbians.

In the end, the Principal was made to apologize to them for their behavior.  Actually, he also almost lost his job after I raised such a ruckus.  As a matter of fact, he didn't talk to me for years after this happened.  Nate went to that school just a couple of years later, and the VP would not even look at me.  As a matter of fact, he wouldn't talk to me or look at me until he realized Nate was a track star and he needed to be nice to me.

The thing is, its not just kids bullying LGBT kids in the schools.  It's the very people we trust to take care of them when they are out of our sight!  The same kind of thing can happen at work when our kids reach the age of working.  We need to stand up and protect them. If not now, when?  When its too late? When they have been bullied so badly, they have decided to take their own lives?  I won't stand for it.  I wouldn't stand for it when these young women were 14 (and they are now 24/25) and I won't stand for it now 10 years later!

That is my why.  Now if only my own personal injury and Tracy's recent injury will cooperate with the dates when I am called to stand with my community.