The "Relentlessly Gay" Rainbow Jars. Source: Twitter
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi
- A 'Christian' couple vow to divorce if same-sex marriage is legalised in Australia
- Anti same-sex marriage brochures are distributed to children at Australian Catholic Schools
- A woman in the US receives a letter from a concerned neighbour about her "relentlessly gay" yard which shockingly features multiple - yes MULTIPLE I know!! - rainbow coloured jars
These may seem like news headlines from 1950, but nope....they are from this very week 2015. If Gandhi's quote, and the current pockets of fierce resistance are anything to go by, then the LGBT community are up for a huge victory any second now.
Victory seems like a strange word to use. Victory for having one's identity finally and fully accepted and respected? For having the same rights as your fellow human beings? A person or community shouldn't have to fight for these things but ever since small minds and narrow hearts somehow took control over most social and global systems, this has been the case for every so-called minority group.
But here's the thing about minority groups - and most of us are in one, of some kind or other, you are just lucky if yours happens to be of the more socially accepted kind - when united together we become the big majority. Together we have the power to rock the boat, to stand up for and support each other.
In the past the collective response was more 'your cause is not my cause, so I'm staying out of it', or worse. Today, thanks to a combination of increased consciousness, online information, social media and expanded social circles, we have a greater awareness that we are all in this life thing together. The unfamiliar 'other' is now your family member, your friend, your colleague. And so the collective drum has changed to 'your cause becomes my cause' because we can see with our eyes and feel with our hearts the effects that a warped social and political system has on our loved ones, and on ourselves. Humanity is rocking the boat on this and every other issue that is due for transformation and evolution.
‘If one fails, all
fail.’
− The KeyMaker, The Matrix Reloaded, Andy and Larry
Wachowski
The sign that we are in fact in 2015 not 1950 is that even while there are still those who are outraged and distressed by #relentlesslygay things that affect them in no way whatsoever, the majority are more outraged and distressed by the prejudice and ignorance that still exists in our society. The tide has turned. The boat is rocking as it turns in the direction of a new world, one in which freedom to be who you really are, and allowing others the same courtesy, while harming no-one, is surely part of the cornerstone of our new foundation.
(c) Dana Mrkich 2015
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