Journey Onward.....

I’m not sure where I heard it, yet, I know I like it and I’ve tweaked it and adopted it. “America is the great democratic experiment of the extension of rights until all are fully equal.”

The premise works. In the founding of this nation only white, male, property owners were allowed to vote and therefore they held all power and privilege. The democratic vision or spirit or movement would not let the country stay in that reality and throughout our 200 plus years of existence we have extended rights to persons of color, to women, to children, to immigrants, to the impoverished, to individuals who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer. Yes, the rights have and are being extended ---- we’re not yet there to full equality, not be a long shot, yet, we are on our way and can see the signs of our progress.

Last weekend, I went to see the film, PRIDE. Set in 1984 Great Britain, the movie is based on the true story of the coming together of a group of striking, union miners and young gay and lesbian activists in a show of support and solidarity. (For Pittsburghers, the film is currently playing only at THE MANOR in Squirrel Hill)

While watching the movie and discussing it later, I was amazed that a film set thirty years ago, definitely during my lifetime, could portray the treatment and bias and fear and hate once perpetrated on members of the GLBTQ community in a way that three decades later seem so shocking and horrible. It’s like watching the movie GONE WITH THE WIND and being blown away (pun intended) at the perception and treatment of African Americans two centuries ago.

I am not saying that we’ve arrived and I know that ignorance and injustice and hateful acts still exist in far too many ways and instances. However, we have made steps forward. We can watch a film depicting actions that took place in one’s lifetime and realize we lived through that and can now see that advances in how we hold our shared human community have occurred. The scene of the young man anxiously and fearfully stepping into the margins of the gay pride parade shifts in one’s mind to 2014 and the fact that in thirty-two states it is legal for couples who are gay to marry.

We are a people in process and a nation moving forward often in stops and starts. The key point is that we move forward and toward equality. Journey on!

sj;