Opinion: Balliet: Are gays second-class citizens?

Balliet: Are gays second-class citizens?
By Amy Balliet, JointheImpact.com 12.02.2008 5:12pm EST

Amy Balliet is the founder of JointheImpact.com, the group that organized the national protests and continues to organize gay and lesbian protests accross the country. We will be putting up occasional posts from the JointheImpact blog.

There has been a great deal of talk on The Impact about Light Up the Night for Equality and whether or not we should have 2nd Class Citizen T-shirts.

Many feel that they are a 1st Class Citizen with 2nd Class Rights, and I think we should be allowed to express who we are in a way we are comfortable with. When it comes down to it, few will argue that our lack of rights incorporates a feeling of 2nd Class in one way or another.

On Dec. 20th, we want to bring light to this lack of rights and want you to feel comfortable expressing the 2nd Class status in your own way.

So many people still don’t understand what we are fighting for. Here’s some examples of the “unequal protections under the law” that the LGBTQ community faces:
We can not fight for our country without hiding who we are.

http://www.365gay.com/blog/balliet-are-gays-second-class-citizens/

I think it's more steerage class at least to the religiously-inspired majority.

Who else can't get married? Is often eliminated from adoption or fostering for reasons unrelated to parenting ability? Lacks protection against job discrimination for an inborn trait? Who can in all serious be called abominations by national leaders?

Stowaways?

Maybe 3rd class Indian trains.

and it broke my heart. I remember a few years back, I read about a U.S. court case where some people were trying to decriminalize homosexuality. One of the opposing judges said that it would mean that America could end up like Canada. Gee, I had no idea that we were so evil.

Canada doesn't have anything in its Constitution's Charter of Rights that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But we did have a Supreme Court ruling that said discrimination is discrimination, even if it's not specifically mentioned in the Charter. We also had a Supreme Court ruling that said gay marriage is legal.

GLBT people here still face hate and discrimination, but at least they have some legal protections. I feel really bad for you folks down in the States. Even though I'm a straight woman, I have a lot of sympathy for the cause. I have a life-long geekiness problem, so I have some sense of what it's like to go around feeling like you don't fit in and have to hide who you really are.

Good luck with the coming battles!

that my spouse and I hope to emigrate to Canada. We were married in Windsor, Ontario in September of 2007 and the people we dealt with were absolutely wonderful. When we went to get our wedding license, we were treated just like any other couple coming in to get a license to marry. I knew that when my spouse and I were married that we would not have to deal with crazy challenges from idiot fundies who have their knickers in a twist over something that essentially is NONE OF THEIR DAMNED BUSINESS. This was one of the main reasons that we chose Canada when we wished to legally wed. That Canadian license is one of the most precious pieces of paper in our possession.

Note to the idiot homophobes, including those at DU:

Canada has had same-sex marriage for a number of years now and the place is still standing.

My thanks to your Supreme Court for doing the right thing. Hopefully one day I will have the priviledge of calling myself Canadian.