Poll for GLBT members ( Do you feel like a 2nd class citizen?)

[William769]

On EDIT: If you vote no, please explain your reasoning so we may all understand.

[GodlessBiker]

1. It will really depend on how the NY Court of Appeals rules on gay marriage

[sui generis]

2. will you be able to file federal taxes together?

will you be a 1st class citizen in all 50 states? I think in my lifetime we'll always feel like we're on hard-fought-for time, and that there are always going to be assholes who want to push us backwards, no matter how many gains we make.

Similar to asking a black man or woman if they feel like a first class citizen even with every law ostensibly in place saying it's so.

Some of it is how the law treats with us, some of it is our experience. Hopefully future generations will have the luxury of taking for granted the things we are fighting for today.

[GodlessBiker]

4. No, and you are right.

The interesting thing in NY will be if gay folks who married in CA or MASS (and then moved to NY) will file as married people on their New York returns.

[teenagebambam]

3. I said I don't know

Socially, my partner and I have been very blessed - we are accpeted and embraced by both our families, we have good relationships with our neighbors despite living in a conservative, working class neighborhood, we are both employed in mainstream churches where the clergy and parishioners are aware of our familial situation...and this being tax time, I certainly see some benefit in having the combined household income of two college educated white men who are not legally connected in any way.

However, I know any of these circumstances could change in an instant, and could leave one of us high and dry either financially or socially...so....I don't know.

[Jersey Ginny]

5. I would have said 'sometimes yes, sometimes no'

Coming from a white heterosexual uppper middle class background, and now I'm in the same class essentially as an adult, but one SMALL difference being having a partner who is a woman, I see the priviledge I've lost (can't live anywhere I want for example, can't hold hands without stares or even danger, tax differences), and I also see the many ways I am fortunate-decent job, accepting family and neighbors and friends-straight and gay. I'd have to say that while I am grateful for my life and that many people face circumstances far worse than I do, I feel vulnerable to the hatred that can be whipped up by a radical few. America is not immune to the insanity of the Germans/Nazi's. There is no "gay country" who could fight for "us" like there now is Israel to fight for the Jews. I voted, "yes" that I do feel second class, but that is far from the whole story.

[Meldread]

6. Yes, I *KNOW* I am a second class citizen.

I live in the State of Virginia. Here they strive very hard to remind LGBT people that they are second class citizens, and should be lucky to be considered American Citizens at all. (And some would no doubt strive to take even that from us.)

[William769]

7. I wonder if some heterosexuals are trying to skew this poll?

[foreigncorrespondent]

8. Do I ever!!!!

<rant on>

Let's see, immigration in the U.S has not become a big issue with a lot of straight people until they get idiotic ideas that illegals want their precious jobs. Yet my partner, an American citizen still doesn't have the right so sponsor me. But to them, that isn't an issue they need to be concerned with, unless they are an idiot who votes on the right, then they go against my partners right as a citizen of a country to have the ability to sponsor the person she loves. I'd like to see all these idiots spend a year apart from their loved one (the longest Sapph and I have spent apart is 14 months) with their only way of communicating with that person is through IM's and phone.

My country wrote discrimination into our constitution two years ago banning any and all recognition of same sex marriages, making it official that I am a second class citizen from that moment. I'd like to see my government get told their marriages are not legal and the country won't recognize them. Then further write that into our constitution.

To this day (due to fear of being bashed) I cannot kiss my partner at the airport as soon as she walks out after not seeing her for maybe a year or more. I need to wait until the safety of our car to do that. I'd like to see the haters not be able to kiss their loved one in public, or hold hands for that matter, for fear of being bashed for it.

I can't tell anyone I work with that for the last six years I have been in a relationship with my soul mate. Why? Because I am in the wrong trade for that. If people I work with lost respect for me (and they would) then they would refuse to work with me, and guess what? I would then lose my job.

I am fucking tired of living in fear and not being able to be the person I was born to be in the public eye! Just once I would like that public eye to walk in our shoes, just to see what the fuck it is like being born gay.

</rant>

[Not Me]

9. Yes, to the point that I am considering leaving the U.S.

If I saw things improving here, I'd have hope; but I actually see them regressing. Sad, really.

[Siyahamba]

10. Not even a 3rd class citizen...not even a citizen, period.

If my partner was of the opposite sex, I could be a citizen, but since he is of the same sex, US immigration doesn't recognize us. In fact, if we were to get married in another country that recognized us, US immigration conveniently WOULD recognize that as a sign that I intend to remain in the US permanently, and would bar me from entry.

[theHOMOagenda]

11. Definitely...

The powers that be want a return to 'ole timey' values... you know, like the ones they are putting place in Nigeria. :wtf:

And here we are in another election year and the vitriol is more extreme than at the peak of the presidential 'election' of 2004.

And it is only April folks... :patriot:

[Democrats_win]

12. Thoreau: "I will live as if your world has ended, as indeed it deserves to

end. I will live as if my gesture of refusing your world has destroyed it."

Many gay Americans live in a different world where we are (mostly) not second class citizens. It is a "home at the end of the world."

[terrya]

13. Yes.

If my partner and I can't enjoy the same rights of marriage as heterosexual couples, then I'm a second class citizen. Period.

Until that happens, I will ALWAYS be a second class citizen in this country.

[UncleSepp]

14. Take a look at the transphobia thread and see what you think.

As a transman - a gay one at that - I don't even exist. I'm even sitting in the back of the gay bus. In the big wide world, I'm not in the back of the bus even. I'm under it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. You're damned right I do

Just for starters: Congress is voting to amend the Higher Education Act (which defines how colleges are acredited) so schools can refuse to admit GLBT students -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2233034&mesg_id=2233034