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Tour De Life by Beau Burriola

The Gays have spoken
A few weeks ago, I used my few inches of Queer fish wrapper here to tell you why we should turn out to support the only Gay candidate running for the 43rd district Democratic nomination to the state House of Representatives. In a very close race, the community turned out for Jamie and made the statement that Gay folk are determined to be represented by our own right now. Up until this summer, most of us urban Gay folk have been living peacefully in our Queer neighborhoods, imagining ourselves to be pretty equally protected in our good ole progressive Washington State. We have a massive Gay community, a Gay chorus the size of the Chinese army, Gay historians and athletes, an annual parade that swallows the town, our own film festival, and a Gay phone book pointing to a million other reasons why Seattle's Gay community is strong. We've watched the fight for marriage equality go to the Supreme Court and imagined that surely the justices would see that the system was wrong and had to be corrected, but the majority decision to deny marriage protection to same sex couples shattered that illusion of equality completely. The court stepped on our toes and we voted. When faced with a list of candidates to represent us in the new fight for marriage equality in the legislature, who else would Joe or Jane Gay select, but one of the strongest and best-spoken voices for marriage equality in our state? The Gay people of this district, by choosing Jamie Pedersen, have shown that, while we understand there are a lot of issues facing us today, the battle for marriage equality is one of the biggest right now and we will not accept anything less than every single right that every other citizen of this state enjoys, even if we have to convince all of them that it has to happen. Everyone can expect great things from Jamie. His long history of leading this community has shown that he will make us proud. Also, it's easy to imagine his signature hair and full face smile adorning a statue at the entrance to another park that might someday honor those Gay state legislators who brought us victory in the fight for marriage equality. The Gays have spoken. Beau Burriola is a local writer who watches the news, votes, and regularly browses the Equal Rights Washington web site at www.equalrightswashington.org.
visit Beau at www.beaubrent.com