We’re Off To See The Wizard: No Special Rights For No Body, No Way, No How

Lately I think those of us in the gay community feel like Dorthy, Lion, Tin-Man and Scarecrow, following the yellow brick road to see the Wizard of Oz and there to be given that “special” something that will make us like everyone else.

Every time I hear the words “special rights” I feel uneasy, confused and bewildered and ask myself, “what special rights am I asking for?” What “special rights” do I want that no-one else has? In-fact all you have to do is take a look around at our legal system to see that “straight” people have a whole bunch of “special rights”: the right to legal recognition of their relationships, the right to serve proudly in the military without lying about who they are, the right to raise their own children without being afraid that someone will take the children away because of the sexual orientation of the parents and the right to not have employers and landlords poke into their private business.

Of course it is in the definition of relationship that opens the door to a long list of “special rights”, none of which I can have in my 20 year “partnership”, that all my “straight” friends in their marriages do have.

With marriage, all “straight” relations are able to be consulted and informed about their partners policies, hospital visitation rights, the right to inherit if a spouse dies without a will, the rights of a family unit, the right to death benefits, social security benefits and the right to file joint taxes, which none of these I have.

So do I need the “Wizard” to give me my “special rights” or do we need him to reinforce equality?

The majority of the United States seems to always be leery of “civil rights” issues and thinks of them as “special rights” or a quota system that gives special treatment to a group of minorities.

It has been stated before, from other activists, that what we need to do is stop amending existing civil rights laws. Instead, concentrate on laws that state,

“Before the law, heterosexuals and homosexuals are equal. Neither shall be entitled to special rights or treatment because of their sexual orientation.”

The law shall then treat both as equal and the “special rights” straight people have, the “special rights” they complain we want, would now be just rights of the people, and isn’t that what the Constitutions states anyway?