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Make history January 12

Given the election of George W. Bush nationally, and the passage of Proposal 2 in Michigan, right now it seems as though the darkness will never end for our community.
That's just what the Religious Wrong wants us to think. They want us to succumb to their evil; they want us to give in to despair.
On Dec. 17, four hundred members of our community refused. They held candles against the darkness. They mourned, they expressed their righteous anger, their hope, and their fierce love. They did this on the darkest day of all – the day that Proposal 2 officially defaced the governing document of our state. And they did it publicly, on the steps of the State Capitol, so all of Michigan could see the shame that a few dedicated bigots have brought upon us all.
In the New Year, on Jan. 12, our community has a chance to announce its rebirth. On that day, new community leaders who have been energized, not demoralized, by the fight against Proposal 2 will join with our community's established leaders on the steps of the Capitol once again.
On that day, we will tell the returning Legislature – never again.
Never again will we allow you to pass legislation that belittles us.
Never again will we allow you to threaten our families.
Never again will we sit idly by and be portrayed as anything less than full and equal citizens of this state.
If you try, you will hear from us – by the thousands, and the tens of thousands.
But this rebirth can't be carried off by our leaders alone. We must stand, claim our rebirth in the midst of this darkness, and make our history for ourselves. It will take the four hundred people who showed up in the cold on Dec. 12, and at least a thousand more, to turn our voice into a roar that will be heard inside the Capitol.
But we have the opportunity, beginning on Jan. 12, to give not only our community but the entire state a powerful present for the holidays in 2005; a vibrant, politically and socially powerful LGBT community that is a recognized army in the fight for civil rights for all people. An LGBT community that has accepted the gifts of Proposal 2 – a potential alliance with not only our state's unions, but civil and religious organizations of sane straight people and the almost two million people who voted NO on Proposal 2 – and through the strength of those alliances is preparing to show the door to any judge, and any legislator, who is still struggling under the delusion that to be gay is to be less than anyone else. An LGBT community that will never again be on the defensive. An LGBT community that is proud every single day.
If we would choose to have that gift, we must stand in the cold, against the darkness, on Jan. 12.
Granted, rebirth is never easy. The evil and the ignorance that stand against us are strong, and Jan. 12 will be only the first of many days that we will have to stand together against them. But then, darkness always seems unbreakable until someone lights a candle.

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