OPEN LETTER TO Mr. GIBSON FROM THE NORTH COUNTY LGBT COALITION.

ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH, TOLERANCE AND MARRIAGE EQUALITY.

Dear Mr. Gibson,

The reason for this letter is to address the sense of anger you have expressed in our local newspapers over the intolerant words and personal attacks you have received.

We share and understand your anger. We are sorry to find that you have become the easy target of unwanted e-mails and phone calls over the disputed debate of Miss California.

It is unfortunate because our LGBT community also knows very well how personal attacks and threats can damage all parties involved and compromise better understanding of the issues that really matter to us.
 
However, we cannot take responsibility for what has happened because no one gay man or woman can represent our views out there (and Mr. Perez Hilton certainly does not) just as not every white heterosexual man in the United States that has publicly attacked us can represent your political or personal views on this matter.

Therefore, we propose to leave these stereotypes and generalizations to our politicians because this debate is about Civics and Education and it deserves an educated and fair conversation.

The North County LGBT Coalition supports freedom of speech. We defend Miss California’s right to speak (as well as everyone else’s) no matter how offensive it could become to us.

We defend her freedom of speech because it is one of the most fundamental rights of our Constitution along with the fact that all men and women were created equal under the law.

We have assembled, marched, and chanted the past year to defend every one’s right to speak so that they can express who they are and be treated equally, including Miss California.

But as you can remember, we were not the ones last year that introduced a revision to our Constitution to restrict some of the equal protections for everyone under the law. Therefore, while justified, your complaints about someone’s intolerance of your point of view was most certainly addressed to the wrong audience.

Mr. Gibson, freedom of speech is not a one-sided privilege, but fortunately and rightfully for everyone. Miss California has spoken and everyone is now free to consider her stand. It is everyone’s freedom to debate and criticize her view. How could she not expect that to happen? Did the Vista school district not prepare her for that?

Miss California views on marriage are not a problem for us. The problem is the approach of using Miss California’s failure as a pretest to victimize everyone that is for Marriage Equality.

Last time I checked Miss California was still a free citizen. She was not arrested for what she said and her “courage” was not punished by our Government. Instead, the most powerful and wealthy man on earth, Mr. Donald Tramp, has actually taken her side; not too bad for someone that felt punished for speaking her truth.

However we can’t say that the same treatment and destiny is reserved to the millions of LGBT individuals in our country that every time they talk about their families, every time that they show up at their company Christmas parties, or come back from Iraq and ask for equal treatment they are being mistreated, humiliated or fired.

Mr. Gibson, do you know that despite our freedom of speech, the majority of our states can fire anyone just on the basis of their admitted sexual orientation? The “Coalitions for Traditional Marriage” have proposed several of these amendments just last year in many of these States.

Do you know that our federal government can also fire anyone that works for the defense department and declares themselves to be gay?

As a Marine veteran you can maybe understand the pain of those, who after coming back from Iraq, could have their honor recognized only if they hid who they are, including their same-sex partners and their own children.

Mr. Gibson, where is our freedom of speech?

No one better than us can actually understand how you feel when you become the center of public attention because of your beliefs. However, we are glad that as a heterosexual white man in America you have never had to experience historical genocide such as the holocaust, or the imprisonment, political and human isolation and discrimination, not to mention the death penalty, that some of us can face if traveling back to our country of origin.

Every six hours in America one person becomes the victim of a hate crime offense just because of the color of their skin, their nationality, their gender, or their perceived sexual orientation. It is an historical awareness that we carry with us, Mr. Gibson, everyday and everywhere we go.

The intent of this letter was not want to pretend to change your mind or the minds of anyone in our North County community that does not see Marriage Equality as a right.
What we are asking for is only respect and understanding.
Understanding for our families and children when they ask to be represented by your school district as the law requires; understanding for the families of the victims that continue to die in our country because they are guilty of loving another human being that happens to be the same sex; understanding for our feelings when we are our marriages are ripped away and we lose our legal protection under the law; understanding for those that are now in honorably serving in our military, but are forced by our government to deny themselves and their families of their dignity because of who they are.

Creating opposite sides in our community does not benefit anyone, because being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender in our community is not a profession that we get paid for. In fact many often forget that we are also teachers, police officers, fire fighters, doctors, volunteers in our community, students, parents, elderly, black, white, Hispanic, Native American, and of Asian descendents. We are in fact the only minority that is everywhere and everyone. The only difference is that we are the only minority that has not yet reached true equality.

In conclusion, this is why we are here today: to open lines of communication with our fellow North County citizens.

Sharing the stories of citizens who are living like everyone else with the fear and difficulty of our economy, but with the aggravation that the taxes we pay to our local government, state, and country do not come back to us as a tax write-off, pension benefits, or any other form of federal support that “traditional” couples enjoy just because of Civil marriage.

We are here because we want to make sure that one day everyone’s children of any faith and social background will enjoy the freedom to marry the person they love.