Main | Thursday, December 03, 2009

A Gay Secession

LGBT news outlet Out Front Colorado has issued a (mostly) tongue-in-cheek manifesto calling for a gay secession. It reads, in part:
The American government has failed to acknowledge that civil rights cannot and should not be put to a popular vote. By definition, the majority has no concern for the well-being of the minority. Were the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 put to a popular vote, it may not have passed. Civil rights – which is what we have been asking for, loudly and simply, since the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and before – are not the domain of public opinion.

We have been told to be patient. We have been told that progress is being made. We have been told that there are more pressing issues to attend to first. But we are tired of waiting. We refuse to be second-class citizens. We refuse to continue to pay taxes and make political, social and economic contributions to a government, society and culture that does not permit us to live freely. We refuse to be complicit in a system that does not recognize our existence, let alone our inherent right to equality.

Following yet another failure by the American Democratic process – this time, a legislative process rather than a popular vote – to recognize or even vaguely protect our rights as equal citizens, we propose radical measures. Therefore, we are claiming the U.S. states known as California, Oregon and Washington, in the name of LGBT former Americans, as a separate nation, heretofore to be known as LiBerTy Gayte. LiBerTy Gayte will be a haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender former Americans who, like us, are fed up with government ignorance and disavowal of their very existence. Children of, and LGBT families are of course welcome in LiBerTy Gayte.

A representative parliamentary government will be elected by majority popular vote. The Nation’s capital will be San Francisco, a centrally located and historically queer location. A sort of “Gayden of Eden,” LiBerTy Gayte citizens will enjoy the rights denied them in the United States. Initially, citizenship will be granted exclusively to LGBT former Americans. To establish a strong infrastructure and economic market, citizens will be given jobs according to their abilities.
Upon being granted citizenship in LiBerTy Gayte, "Gaytians" must recite the new pledge of allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the Fag,
Of LiBerTy Gayte
And to the Orientation
For which it stands
One Nation,
Under the Disco Ball,
Indefatigable,
With LiBerTy and Queerness for all.
Lots more here.

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