Appear in Lapeer

There's a great bumper sticker we seem to live by here in the BTL office: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" (rarely does this bumper sticker share the same vehicle with "Sportsmen for Bush" or those charming little stickers emblazoned with "Whatever." There's a reason for that).
Right now in Michigan, there's a lot to be outraged about, especially if you're a member of the LGBT community or an ally. And if you're reading this paper and you don't know what is happening, please don't be offended when we say: WAKE UP!!!!
LGBT people are under attack right now in Michigan. We've got a Senator hot to propose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in this state and we've got right wing henchmen working at the community level to pass resolutions in support of this divisive and hurtful idea all over the state. And it appears that our state legislators are being bombarded with only one side of the issue: the side that is against us. And that's a very bad thing.
The right wing is one of the most vocal and politically active factions in the country. This doesn't mean that they're the majority, but they are loud and they are persistent and they want to make damn sure that they appear to be speaking for the majority of people who actually vote.
And that leads us to another point: elected officials care about votes. They need them to stay employed. If LGBT people don't get to the polls, elected officials aren't going to go out on a limb and defend our rights and work for our equality. It's far safer for them to hold LGBT people and issues at arms length (or to push us away entirely) than to embrace us out right.
Our elected officials on every level (local, state, and national) need to see us, they need to hear from us, and they need to know that we ARE paying attention and we ARE outraged. One way to do this is to show up in Lapeer County this Saturday at noon to rally in support of same-sex marriage and against the blatantly homophobic marriage resolution the Lapeer County Board of Commissioners passed in September.
In case you've been asleep these past few months (and if you have, we hope you're well rested now, because the LGBT community can't afford any more napping), several counties including Oakland and Jackson passed resolutions against same-sex marriage and in support of an amendment to the Michigan constitution to ban it. Lapeer County also passed such a resolution, but Lapeer went a step further by unashamedly violating the separation of church and state, quoting Genesis and other Biblical language. They also stated that homosexuals were more or less cesspools of disease and that should we ever be allowed to get married children would be at risk (of disease, it is implied, though the terrible "gays as child molesters" image is certainly invoked).
On Saturday, LGBT people and their straight allies will be rallying at the Lapeer County Courthouse to say that we will not be marginalized. We will not stand idly by while people who dare judge the contents of our hearts are debating the very validity of our relationships and lives. The right wing has for far too long defined what it means to be LGBT. We need to show up and expose the hysterical and hyperbolic ways they have tried to portray us as the homophobic lies they are.
Please see the ad on page 9 in this issue for more information about the rally. Gather your friends and go. As Larry Kramer says in this issue, the work for LGBT rights has been done by far too few people for too long. Activist is not a dirty word, and it is not something LGBT people have the liberty to choose whether or not they want to be.
We must show that we are not snags in this country's moral fabric. We are strong stitches in the quilt of diversity that has been the hallmark of this nation, and indeed this state, from its inception. To take a pair of scissors to us now threatens the whole and does not make any part of this country safer or more stable.
See you in Lapeer.