Okay.  So I’m supporting President Obama this election year.  And a lot of my friends are calling me a “one issue voter” because his biggest selling point for me is his stance on marriage equality. 

And yes, I know marriage equality is not the ultimate goal of the Gay Rights Movement.  For me, I’d rather the platform be about fighting discrimination in the work place, but look it’s 2012 and for the first time EVER, LBGTQ issues have made the official platform for political party and it just happens to be marriage equality.  It’s a stepping stone.  This is a process.  Change takes time, and ultimately it takes more time than one or even two presidential terms.  

But here’s my issue with calling me a “one issue voter.”  Gay rights is not, let me repeat, NOT a one issue problem.  It is A LOT of issues.  It’s work discrimination, it’s bullying in school, cyber-bullying on the webs, it’s the high rate of teen suicides for LBGTQ youth, it’s children being left homeless because their families cannot accept them, it’s the fact that some of my friends can’t go into the male bathroom because people cannot accept that trans people exist much less deserve respect.  And YES, of course, there is the fact I can’t get married in the state I have lived in for the last 21 years.  

Is marriage the ultimate goal of the Gay Rights Movement?  No.  Is it a good starting point?  That’s debatable.  Is it our best bet for keeping the momentum of this movement going?  Yes, I honestly think so.   

So look, I’m not a one issue voter.  I’m voting for all these issues that are faced by members of the LBGTQ community because right now Obama is a much better bet for changing the future of LBGTQ Americans than Romney/Ryan or Ryan/Romney, whichever they’re pushing these days, I know it tends to flip-flop.  

I was really excited today.  I got the chance to collaborate on a project for my university that I am really proud of. We made an “It Gets Better” video for the University of South Carolina.  And the response from students, faculty and alumni has been so touching. 

But one person, who I hardly ever talked to while at my old high school before GSSM, commented with the simple word “Fags” on the post.  I immediately reported it, unfriended him and ultimately removed the post.  I didn’t bother taking a screen shot or sending him a message or anything.  

It has been a long time since I was bullied.  Besides being called “lesbos” across a campus sidewalk when I held my girlfriend’s hand a year and half or so ago, I’ve never really had any confrontations.  

High school and middle school were a different story, but that’s in the past, and honestly, they’re not really relevant to what I’m trying to get at right now. 

I hate bullying.  I HATE it.  For those of you who don’t know me, I don’t really hate anything.  It’s really hard to get me angry, and even when I am, it takes a lot to get a reaction.  But I honestly hate bullying, there’s no place for it here today.  It doesn’t make kids tough.  It doesn’t teach real world lessons.  It’s cruel and inhuman, and I think it is heartbreaking that some adults make excuses for it and even encourage it.  Bullying is a whole new world that our parents never understood.  One, in which your privacy can be violated in front of the entire internet audience with one viral video.  

I doubt I will be able to stop bullying by myself as it’s a force way bigger than me.  But I can guarentee you that I will not STOP until I have given everything I can to make sure every kid in every small Southern town in the US can feel safe in their own home, school and/or religious institution.  

This is ridiculous.  Where do people get this “great” idea that others are worth less than them?  At the end of the day, we are all human.  Not that I’m saying we should ignore people’s differences, I just think there’s a big difference between embracing someone for being different and tolerating someone for being different and especially different from discriminating someone for being different.  

I am not and will not ever be a single label.  
I am not and will not ever stop being a human being.
I am not and will not ever stop caring about others.  

But,

I am and will always stand up for what I believe is true.  

And for now that’s all I can offer, but I promise it’ll get better, not because that’s what magically happens when you leave your small hometown, but because I am MAKING it better.  One step at a time.