I wrote the other day about the goings on in the Memphis City Council, which was considering an inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance for city employees. Unfortunately, due to the petulance of certain members of the Council and the Mayor, the Tennessee Equality Project asked that the ordinance be pulled from consideration, to be reintroduced at a later date when it might have a chance of getting a fair hearing.
If you’ve been to a City Council meeting in a large city, you know the drill. Once your reason for being there has passed from the agenda, you get up and get out of Dodge. Amid a contentious session (for many reasons), we stayed until it was time to go, and then we finally left. My friend Michael Hildebrand, however, did not leave. He and his boyfriend stayed until the bitter end, and after the final prayer (way to go, secular government!), he finally got the floor. In a chamber empty except for the members of the Memphis City Council, Michael spoke from his heart about what it feels like to be a gay citizen in a city that he loves, as so many do, but that doesn’t seem to love us back.
It’s a candid speech, and well worth watching.
Also, he said “shit” in front of the Memphis City Council, so kudos for that.
Tags: discrimination, gay rights, Memphis, Memphis City Council, nondiscrimination ordinances, Tennessee Equality Project
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Very impressive. Thank you, Michael.
Comment by Patrick — August 26, 2010 @ 7:49 pm
A gay person, shouldn’t have to plead to be a contributing, responsible and compassionate person. These, I thought, were the qualities that even conservatives respected. That these are people that the Constitution and Bill of Rights is supposed to protect and enable.
Here is a man who not only as an individual, but his intimate network also, contributes to his city’s welfare. To his family’s welfare.
And should be able to his own.
Here is a gay man, pleading for his fellow gay citizens, to be able to do the RIGHT things, in peace and harmony with his hetero peers.
And he CAN if given the same opportunities. His parents were willing to destroy his potential. His community, only because he’s gay, not because he’s someone who proved a danger or incapable of making a contribution.
It is very much like being black. Because the message from this country to gay people is: no matter how talented, compassionate, and willing and able to make a contribution, it doesn’t matter. Not only does it not matter, we will impede your ability to do so.
That is SO fucked up. So unAmerican and anathema to conservative values and contradicts the mission statement of our own country’s freedoms for it’s citizens.
How fucked up is it to have to beg to be self reliant, loved, responsible and free?
Comment by Regan DuCasse — August 27, 2010 @ 6:20 am
UPDATE: Oct 11th, 2010 (Monday) Gay Rights March for Equality
3:30pm – meet at or around the Civil Rights Museum Downtown
4:30pm – march to the city council building to demand equal representation from the city government. Not just for City workers but for all gay men and women.
I need all the help planning that I can muster. Please call me with any assistance you can give in planning and organizing this march. 773 841-6773 | michael@killingclipart.com
or contact my sister at kris10rh@yahoo.com
XOXOXO
Comment by Michael Hildebrand — August 27, 2010 @ 6:13 pm
OKAY THEN, Michael!
;-)
Comment by Evan Hurst — August 27, 2010 @ 6:14 pm