So far to go

It should come as no surprise that after a week of board meetings for the HRC, I would have the struggle for gay rights on my mind. Coincidnetally enough, when I peruse my friends' blogs, one of them had made a post about the Victory Fund. Part of that, was an inclusion of this video:

**Warning, you may end up angry after watching this.



*Thanks Lana
You can e-mail the… person… in the video at sallykern@okhouse.gov

I am sure she deserves to hear from us.

I have a lot of friends, particularly now that I live in NYC (where we have non-discrimination politicies, etc.) that think the fight is pretty much over, or unimportant. The fact that people in power are still able to say things like what was shown in this video says differently.

One of the people that we heard from this weekend was a guy who lost his partner in a plane crash. His story, while sad was made all the worse by the fact that no one would tell him anything. He watched the news, not knowing who if anyone survived, if there were injuries, etc. His calls the air controllers were met with "You're his partner, not family, therefore we can't tell you anything." Insanity.

The level of ignorance people still exhibit and the prejudices that exist towards different people (no matter whether the difference is sexuality, race, etc). I understand that people are built thinking of things in a certain way, but you would think that in times of crisis, your compassion would outweigh your ignorance and you would do what you could for someone else. Apparently this isn't the case.

So often I feel like the wins and loses that we face are the ones in the political arena. Examples like this remind me that there is a larger war going on in the minds and actions of individual people. Unfortunately, despite progress, it seems like there is still a very long road ahead. It makes me happy to know that myself and so many people I know are doing what they can to make a difference in this "conflict" that we simply cannot afford to lose, and that organizations like HRC makes enables us to make a dramatic change in the world.