Queer Equality Revolution: Respect U.S. Law?!

January 19, 2009

Respect U.S. Law?!

A re-run from July 17, with update.

How long can one person continue screaming

"EQUALITY-FAMILY-CHILDREN"

Before one loses one's freakin' mind?

Case Study #717 ~ 12-16 weeks TOPS.

How can Heterosexuals expect the Q community to respect any U.S. law when so many of our nation's laws have been used against us and the FAMILY we love?

Consider how a heterosexual man would react to being:

ARRESTED FOR EXPRESSING HIS LOVE FOR HIS SPOUSE in the privacy of his own home? (sodomy laws were in effect until as recently as 2003).
ARRESTED FOR BEING IN A BAR? (think Stonewall...not that long ago).
DENIED TO SEE HIS DYING WIFE of 20 years during her last moments on this earth? (present day).
DENIED TO SEE HIS CHILD of 9 years in the hospital after a life-threatening accident? (present day adoption issues).
EVICTED FROM THE HOUSE HE BUILT by his deceased wife's family and then charged back rent...after a 30-year marriage? (present day).
TREATED AS IF HE HAS A MENTAL ILLNESS for loving his spouse (OK, not US law, but the Psychiatric Association and its influence on public opinion and law-making can't be overlooked).

I could offer many more scenarios, but suffice it to say that your average heterosexual man would NOT stand for these affronts to himself and family. I seriously doubt he would pay taxes to a government that has consistently treated him and his loved ones as less than human; he would probably use force or violence if needed to be able to live freely and protect the family he loves. And this violence would be "justified", even celebrated. "Pride-Glory-Honor".

Article I. ALL men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.

Some say we should be patient and wait 20-30 years for the laws to change. I can't. I won't. I lost my patience when I lost everything else I owned due to issues related directly to an unconstitutional legal discrimination. PTSD resulting from discrimination. PTSD resulting from HATE.

Until all LGTB Families are included in ARTICLE 1 above, we have no obligation to pay taxes while we wait for Society and Government to catch up to Morality and Common Decency.

Family Is Home.

Home Is Where The Heart Is.

There's No Place Like Home.

Home Sweet Home.

If I do not VALUE YOU or YOUR WORTH as a human being, nor do I value your Family and Children and their worth as Human Beings (some LGBTI do have children), why in the WORLD would I think you deserve adoption rights, hate crime protection, a modicum of respect in the military, or discrimination protection in your job? You are practically SUB-HUMAN by most legal standards.

Yet many of us in the Q community politely smile and submit to an Internal Revenue Service, sanctioning the very discrimination we are whining about.

We need to BELIEVE we TRULY DO DESERVE the civil rights we fantasize about; maybe if we ACT in a way that demonstrates that belief society and the US government will take note. Today we have state-by-state public relations campaigns and fundraisers, gambling on the hopes we will purchase enough PR to "win" equal CIVIL rights. Evan Wolson predicts 30 years for federal marriage equality; 30 years of fundraisers?!

My own tax protest is simply because I cannot continue justifying tax-compliance as a SUB-American. If even 1/4 of LGBTI Americans decide to PUBLICLY join Charles Merrill and I...

[99% of those withholding are silent protesters],

...that's just dandy,

but I'm doing it because I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

In business and personal life, one adage is

"You Teach People How To Treat You".

Tax-Compliance confirms

"It's OK to be treated as a SUB-American".

====================================

UPDATE - January 19, 2009

Such a different world now since July 17th.

I invested in a studio...again...and now sit among it's ghosts in my living room. Anyone wanna buy 100's of dollars of children's piano music? Wrist ribbons? A giant floor grand staff?

And we need to invent a word for when a person simultaneously giggles and cries, as I do when I re-read of my TAX WITHHOLDING days above, you know, when I was actually MAKING an income and could resist the federal income tax.

I would normally feel guilty and apologize to all WA state tax-payers, but then again, it is THEIR and OUR stoopid-ass-government's INDIFFERENCE and LACK OF CONCERN about Queers that create these kinds of AVOIDABLE hardships again and again and again.............underscore AVOIDABLE.

Heterosexuals, please note - YOU DO NOT KNOW of these hardships.

Your "special" marriage laws PROTECT YOU from the majority of them.

We experience them daily.

WE DO NOT COUNT legally....NOR do our children, and THAT is reason enough to REVOLT against the I.R.S.

Music and Me

I started playing the piano around age 6; finished "Teaching Little Fingers To Play" with a teacher, then was self-taught using the U.S. School of Music Home Study Course until I studied at the University of Michigan, where I was fortunate to be on scholarship. At age 10 I volunteered as the church organist for weekday Mass. My first paying gig was at 13 as the organist for Sunday Mass at St. Julian Catholic Church. My brother gave me his electric bass and amp at 13 after I played it for a few days; by 14 I was gigging in a band.

I taught music in some form (piano, theory, bass guitar) from age 20-43. During that time I was extraordinarily passionate about Piano Pedagogy, Music Learning Theory, and Early Childhood Music & Movement, and used to consider teaching young children music through the piano to be an awesome responsibility, privilege, and joy.

I earned a BM in Piano Performance in '93 from U of M, where I was OBSESSED with 20th century music. My biggest accomplishment at Michigan was performing Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata from memory; it's not virtuostic per se, but it's extraordinarily 'complex' music. At 20 I taught bass at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and performed with the W.C.C. Jazz Orchestra and Afromusicology Ensemble. I owe my ENTIRE musical life to Dr. Morris J. Lawrence, Jr., Lynne Bartholomew, and Arthur Greene.

Professional highlights include performing for President Reagan, opening for Dizzy Gillespie, and playing in the Montreux-Detroit International Jazz Festival. In 2002 I presented my one-man show "Wild About Rhythm" at local elementary schools, and owned and operated a Piano Studio from my home in Kirkland, WA between 1996-2004. I briefly had 24 piano students in 2008, until my P.T.S.D. was severely triggered on 11.05.08. In my lifetime I have performed at over 200 weddings and/or wedding receptions, but I have had to stop because the irony is LITERALLY killing me.