I have a dream, Martin Luther King Junior preached, I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, I have a dream today. And today, I have dream. I have a dream that one day my two mothers will live in a nation where they will not be judged by whom they love but by who they are, I have a dream today. Martin Luther King Junior preached for equal rights and human rights for all. He preached for the freedom of the African American. He preached that even though slavery had been abolished, the Negro was still not free.
And now, today, in the 21st century I stand here and say to you that I am preaching the same thing. I am preaching for human rights, basic human rights for everybody. Does it matter if you are white, black, Mexican, Native American, straight, gay, lesbian, mentally disabled, physically disabled? No! No because America was founded on the grounds of equal rights for everybody. When England’s king tried to govern the colonies, the people rose up in protest and challenged the king’s authority and won. They became a new nation that was founded on equal rights.
And now it is time, once again to rise up in protest against the injustice of denying everybody the right to marry. It is time for human rights to carry across this country and it is time for the people to invest themselves in making this world a place where human rights for everybody is accepted. When the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence they signed a promise, a promise to all Americans. They guaranteed the “unalienable rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” These unalienable rights are for everybody, yes even those who lived in the shadows and were afraid to come out. They were afraid to come out and say, this is who I am and I am proud of that. I am not ashamed of who I am.
Everybody should feel that they can come out into the public eye and say, I am who I am and I am not going to change for you. But for years, gays and lesbians have either hidden away who they truly are and lied to themselves about who they are, or they have stood up and tried to tell the world who they are, but the world beat them down. Now, is this right? We, as a country should not allow this to happen. We as a country need to be able to sit down with our brothers and sisters and accept them for who they are. We need to respect our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters for who they are and instead of pushing them away we need to embrace them and embrace their differences. Gays and lesbians should not be afraid to walk down the street and show affection for the one they love. Gays and lesbians should not be afraid to stand up in front of a group of people and announce their amazing and wonderful union and commitment to each other.
The belief: equal rights for all needs to resonate throughout this country; to every hill, valley, city, forest, countryside, all across the globe equal rights needs to fly. Let equal rights fly from the northern reaches of Maine to the southern tip of Florida. Let it fly from the southern tip of Texas all across the west and into California. Let it fly on up and back across the northwestern United States. Let it fly to every corner of the globe and invest itself in the people and let the people all over the world stand up and say it is time. It is time for all people to have equal rights and the rights to marry and let the United States of America lead the charge. There are eight places in America where gays and lesbians are allowed to get married and have all of the rights that married couples have. They are: New York, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Washington D.C. Maryland, and Connecticut. That’s it! Eight states! Out of 50! That number is just a number, and yet that small infinitesimal number should be able to grow larger and larger until it includes all 50 states.
Some people may believe that marriage is not that big of a deal. Who cares if you are legally married or not? Well, there are many rights that married couples receive that gays and lesbians are denied because they are not allowed to get married. Some of these include: the right to make decisions on a partner's behalf in a medical emergency, the right to take up to 12 weeks of leave from work to care for a seriously ill partner or parent of a partner, the right to petition for same-sex partners to immigrate, the right for a non-custodial, non-biological or non-adoptive parent to visit a child, the right to purchase continued health coverage for a domestic partner after the loss of a job, the right to inherit property from a partner in the absence of a will, the right to receive family-related social security benefits, income and estate tax benefits, disability benefits, family-related military and veterans benefits and thousands of other important benefits.
Our two mothers adopted my brother and me in 2003, when I was nine and my brother was five. We did this so that we could be considered a family and so that as children we could be legally connected to both of our parents. Before we performed this adoption, if one of my mothers was dying in the hospital my other mother and I would not be allowed go in an see her because we would not be considered her family. If one of my mothers’ were seriously injured, my other mother would not be able to take time off of work to go and care for her. She would lose her job. I was only nine when we performed the adoption, however as I look back on it, it hurts me thinking that my family had to perform legal rights so that we could be considered a family. How would you feel if you had to be adopted by your own two parents so that your family could receive all the rights that other families automatically receive?
If you live in Iowa you are allowed to marry whomever you love as well as receive all the rights that married couples receive; however if you cross the border into Illinois, marriage rights are limited to opposite-sex couples only. When everybody votes on gay marriage, the people are allowing the majority to vote on the rights of the minority. The minority will never receive the rights they deserve until the majority of people rise up together and decide to change the world. We need to change the world for the better.
In California 18,000 gay and lesbian couples joined together in holy matrimony and then the people of California voted against the minority and said no, no you cannot get married because that is wrong. You are wrong. Your family is wrong. But now the people need to stand up and say, no, we are right. We deserve all of the rights that married couples receive. We deserve the right to live as a family. My family is not wrong. Anybody who says that my family is wrong, does not know us. We are a family just like any other family. We love each other, we fight sometimes, we laugh, cry, sing and dance together, as a family. Some people are trying to tear us apart. They are trying to tell us that we are wrong and that we do not deserve to be considered a family. How can anyone think that two people who love and care for each other cannot be considered a family? How is that possible? It is time, time to say, I have a dream and to make that dream come true. I have a dream that we will see equal rights for all married couples, everywhere. I have a dream, today.