Do you have friends or family member or co-workers who are sometimes so...hetero normative and so so very ignorant, that you just have to roll your eyes and bite your tongue really hard, because otherwise you'd strangle them?
I have a friend I went to grad school with and she's white, she's straight and she's married. And she's obviously highly educated and is aware of a lot of things that go on in this world, and then is totally clueless when it comes to other aspects. While I was still in USA, and unemployed trying to find a job, moneyless and totally dependent on my then girl friend, she posted on Facebook saying she wishes she was unemployed so that she could lounge around the pool and do nothing. Hubby to be was making enough money that it would have been possible and she didn't have to worry about having to leave the country or anything like that.
My cousin is having a baby with an american, and I'm happy for her, I am. Biracial, binational baby is not an easy thing to do, even in this time and age. No matter where they live, they will endure ignorance and prejudice. And how horrible of a person does it make me, when the first thing I though when I heard about this was if he wants to take his family to USA, he can. They can get married, sign some papers, and she and the baby will be on their way, no problem. It's sometimes very hard to not be bitter about these things, and not take it personally.
Why aren't I good enough? Why isn't my love good enough?
My niece is bringing her thai (?) boyfriend to Finland to live and my sister has been Facebooking about the process. Like how she has to write a letter of recommendation or proof that they'll be responsible for him or provide a place to stay or vouch for him or something like that. Because he's not from western civilization, the process is kinda long, but still, wanna bring your foreign boyfriend to live with you? Come on over, no problem.
I'm not bitter, but.
A (girl) friend of mine, who's engaged to a man, offered to marry me in England. Marrying a same sex partner is not possible either in Finland or in England yet and the word marriage is the big thing that the christians especially are up and arms about, because obviously same sex marriage would just ruin the sanctity of marriage and the heterosexual privilege of a 50% divorce rate. Can't have that now, can we?
Told her I don't share.
It seems that every day for the past week or two we've seen news from around the world of marriage or immigration equality being pushed forward, and every time I see it, I share it on Facebook. I'm sure many of my Facebook friends have blocked me from their newsfeed, but I hope the ones who haven't read the stories or check my writing and think about it. And this week we've been hearing aboutt the minister who's chairing the judicial committee which is supposed to be handling the marriage equality initiative in Finland and how they are too busy with other things and there are more important things to move forward. In a way I agree, jobs and economy are important, but at the same time, if we just sit at the back of the bus and do nothing, equality will never be achieved.
I'm not saying that I'm free of prejudice or ignorance or in any way informed enough about what goes on in this world and how bad things are for some people and in some countries, but what I do know is the inequality between straight and gay people and straight and gay couples. And I feel like if I'm not doing anything about this and at least try to educate people, then I can't complain either.
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