Hope

Today I voted against Amendment 2, here in Florida. I have many Christian and Catholic friends who I am sure are aghast, on the other hand I have many gay friends, who do a little fist pump as they read this. I am a minority, twice over, I am a woman and Hispanic, and I do not think our state constitution should be amended to take peoples rights away. I have friends and family of all races, religions and sexual orientations. I love them all, above all I respect them all. I believe in families, what ever shape or form families have, these families and/ or couples deserve to be protected. I believe that Americans should have equal rights and protection under the law.

My children have been aware of homosexuality since they were about 5, I know this seems early, but we were in Key West, and it was unavoidable, so we had to give them an age appropriate explanation, which promptly caused one son, quite frankly to state that his brother was gay- the brother thought girls had cooties and wanted nothing to do with them, therefore: GAY. There views and knowledge have changed through the years, they have told me there are openly gay students in their High School, and these kids are accepted. I found this amazing, having come form a Macho culture where my gay male friends literally had to move to Europe to have any sort of open life!

I'm straight and have been married for 18 years, I believe in the sanctity of marriage, I believe in the vows that I and my husband pronounced in a church before God, that was between my husband, myself and God, had nothing to do with the Government, or anyone else.

This is an excerpt form a speech by Harvey Milk- I believe in HOPE, but you can not live on hope alone, we must act.