Speak Up for Equality: The Story Behind the Shirt

Jelly modelling the t-shirt she inspired me to make.

I am not a lesbian. But I'm proud to say I have a friend who is. Since becoming late deafened, I have learned how much it means when someone who isn't deaf or hard of hearing advocates for captions, insurance coverage for hearing aids, and other issues important to the deaf/hoh community. In that spirit, I would like to offer my support to gays and lesbians in their fight for equal rights.

What many of you don't know about me is that I was raised in an extreme fundamentalist Christian environment. Homosexuality was considered a sin and something shameful in the church I attended as a child. I didn't know anyone who was openly gay or lesbian until I was in graduate school. After I had made some male friends in the library science department there, they told me they were gay. I found that for me that announcement didn't change a thing. I still cared about them and enjoyed their company and wasn't about to drop them as friends. Also while in graduate school, after years of looking, I found a church I felt comfortable attending. A church that didn't judge anyone but was accepting of all. I noticed several gay and lesbian people of my aquaintance attending there. They told me it was because they felt welcomed. That impacted me profoundly.

There's a saying that you shouldn't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. My blogging buddy, Jelly has provided that vicarious walk for me. She has opened my eyes to the unfair situation in the United States regarding same sex marriage. For those of you who don't know her, I would recommend the following posts and their accompanying comments:
It's All Your Fault
Love and Marriage
No Cupcakes Today, I'm Grouchy
Reality

But for those of you who are not yet convinced of the need for marriage equality and would like to learn more about what its proponents' positions are, I would recommend the following reading from the Get the Facts section of the Marriage Equality USA website. In the Historical Look section the conservatives' concern about marriage as an evolving institution is addressed. Other common opposing arguments are addressed in the Responses to the Opposition section.

I even have a resource to share for a Conservative Christian Case for Civil Same-Sex Marriage.

Sunday October 11th is Marriage Equality USA's 6th annual Coast to Coast Bridgewalk to raise awareness of the marriage equality cause. There will be a sponsored walk across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and a march in Washington DC. You can read more about the event on their website. In honor of this event, I am going to offer my t-shirt in white at a sale price of $17.99 now through October 12.

You may click here to order:
Women's Speak Up for Equality t-shirt
Men's Speak Up for Equality t-shirt

Finally, I want to leave you with the following subtitled YouTube video. It's food for thought from Ireland.

For anyone who chooses to comment, please note that I don't want to debate the issue of same sex marriage. I respect everyone's rights to their own beliefs. The point of this blog post is to share from my heart what has influenced my own thinking and why I chose to create this shirt. As Jelly herself has told me, "If I can educate just one person, I've done my job."