E-mail Croft -- include name, town, phone number for verificationPosted on 02/18/2004 9:21:40 AM PST by Lance Romance
At the Capitol, a gay youth joins in fight
against proposed constitutional amendment
| E-mail Croft -- include name, town, phone number for verification |
 |
For all the propaganda about anti-gay constitutional amendments being needed to protect children, here's one kid everybody should meet: Gregory Casajuana, a 16-year-old student at Cobb County's Harrison High School.
He was among the speakers Saturday at a rally opposing a bill to make the state Constitution say that gay people can never marry -- and a push to codify the same sentiment in the federal Constitution, which President Bush has suggested he would support. Others at the Capitol included seasoned politicians and activists. But Gregory's moment at the microphone was one of the most rousing.
"I am here because just the other day I was told that I am an abomination to God and this amendment proves it," he told about 600 people gathered in the rain. "I heard this and began to cry. I wondered what has happened to our society to think that because I am gay that I do not deserve to live freely."
He spoke of his hope to be treated fairly. "Do not let the General Assembly take my hope away. Do not let the president take my hope away. And most especially, do not let my Constitution take my hope away."
A few minutes later, I met Gregory, his 14-year-old boyfriend and Edward Gray, the executive director of YouthPride, a support group for gay kids, who was with the boys. They said Gregory has his family's support and his mother had appeared with him at a previous Capitol appearance but had a family emergency that kept her away Saturday. (Lourdes Casajuana confirmed that for me today, saying she is "very proud" of her son.)
I told him how different things are nowadays from when I was his age a generation ago. A gay kid self-aware and brave enough to talk about it publicly? Eloquently? With hundreds of supporters cheering him on? Impossible to imagine.
I asked him why he had come to do this.
"They're making these decisions now and I'm going to have to deal with it sooner or later," he said, calmly, politely, answering other questions with a simple "Yes, Sir" or "No, Sir."
I turned around and looked at the crowd of people hunched under umbrellas, listening to speaker after speaker talk about discrimination, equality and fairness, which are essential parts of this. But I also heard a lot of talk about love and hate -- activists saying that gay relationships are all about love, for instance, and that people who oppose gay marriage rights are motivated by hate.
Emotional concepts like that can be distracting and polarizing. Gay-rights advocates should focus on the practical, tangible benefits that married people get that gay Americans can not, including security for their own children and families. Americans are more likely to stand up for basic fairness than to be made to "respect" or "honor" relationships they might not fully understand.
One man at the rally carried a sign that had a picture of Hitler, which is dangerously overstating the case. Enshrining discrimination into the constitution is a very bad idea, but it's not the Holocaust.
Another sign was more on target: "The Sanctity of Marriage: Britney Spears? Elizabeth Taylor? Michael Bowers?"
Another: "If your marriage needs protecting, you need a therapist, not an amendment."
And, "Preserve marriage: Outlaw divorce."
I saw gay couples there with their children. Straight parents of gay people. A woman with a sign that said, "My Gay Brother Has Rights, Too."
I saw only one person protesting the rally. In one hand he held a sign that said, "Should immorial (sic) rights be given to pimps prostitutes and child molestors (sic) because they love it?" In the other hand: "I am gay-happy because I love God and his laws not a man or sexuality."
Just a few people tried talking with the man, who was soon shouting that half the people there were molested as children and "Y'all love it when a man has sex with another boy."
The commotion caught Gregory Casajuana's attention, but just briefly.
"It's because of people like this that I speak at these events," he told me when I asked how this made him feel. "It's the problem our government has. They don't want to be accepting."
A man shouting about righteousness and perversion. A kid shaking his head and walking away.
Who needs protection from whom?
A few minutes later, I met Gregory, his 14-year-old boyfriend and Edward Gray, the executive director of YouthPride, a support group for gay kids, who was with the boys.
This is Jay Croft, AJC Op-Ed writer and known cruiser of local high school searching for gay youth.
I pray to God Ga passes this amendment, it will make my move from Ma much sweeter.
Gay unions cannot produce children. No amount of wishing it weren't so will change that fact. Nature says no to gay families.
Hey kid, you can get married any time you want - to a member of the opposite sex.
Comedy.
Are these kids from Vermont or has the age of consent been lowered to 14 in Georgia?
Dear God!
Young adolescents, barely into puberty, are already sure they're gay?
Dear God! Give me a break!
Most "gay" people have normal sex sometime in their lives, and many get married to a member of the opposite sex and have children the usual way.
Then they might "discover" they are "gay" or "come out" and then get a divorce. The notorious Anglican bishop you've been hearing about was married and had two daughters, for example.
With "gay" marriage, it changes the whole custody climate. Who has a stabler home, the single parent or the married one? Get it?
To say nothing of adoption and reproductive technologies.
This issue involves children directly, not through some chain of reasoning about slippery slopes.
God help the children of this generation.
Gays adopting teenage boys/girls for their own pleasure?
Gay set asides for college placement?
Mandatory contracts for gay owned companies?
How about hate crime legislation for gays? Oh wait, we already have that one.
Time to nip this in the bud. Viva Georgia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.