My doctor thinks I have a brain tumor, but I can't afford an MRI. Anyway, here's a speech I wrote.

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Wed Dec-17-08 08:01 PM
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My doctor thinks I have a brain tumor, but I can't afford an MRI. Anyway, here's a speech I wrote.

Yes, my doctor thinks I have a brain tumor due to some blood work. I recently had another test that came back negative, and that test already set me back more than I have. Since there is no reason to think the tumor is cancerous, I will not be paying thousands of dollars just to discover that I have a non-life threatening brain tumor that I would need brain surgery to remove and would drive my insurance rates up or make me uninsurable.

Fifteen years ago, I had an MRI because a doctor thought the same thing. I never found out the diagnosis because I lost my health insurance the week after the test. I went off the medication they gave me because it made me so sick. I figure, since I've lived with whatever is going on for 15 years ago without it getting worse, I can probably live with it for a few more. The worse side effect is that it seems to make me gain weight. If I lived in a country with real health care, this would probably be something that could be taken care of. But I don't live in a country like that. Not like that at all.

The point of this post isn't to ask for medical advice or "sympathy." The reason I am posting this is to say that I am not an LGBT person first and a working-class person second and a person who could use real health care third. My LGBT status and the discrimination against me effects my health and my finances. My partner is stuck in a low paying job because it is one of the few that "provides" health insurance to domestic partners. Actually, it lets us buy it at a discount and then the benefits we buy are considered ADDED salary for her because we are gay she has to pay an extra tax on my health care that straight people don't have to pay.

In other words, my issues are pretty much the issues of most working class Americans, only they're exacerbated by being female and gay.

My issues are not the esoteric issues of a privileged class of people.

I was asked to give a public speech at the anti-prop 8 protest the other day. I thought that the protest theme was disorganized, but I consented to speak nonetheless. I figured that now's as good a time as any to post what I said at the rally:

******

As a former striker who spent 6 months on a NYC picket line
I'd like to begin by saluting those who risked their jobs
And accepted financial hardship by calling out of work today.

Since the passage of Prop 8
Folks seem compelled to repeat a popular quotation from Martin Luther King:
"The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice."
But what exactly is "justice"?
We usually describe it in terms of legal punishment
Or in terms of giving people their fair share.
But I'd like to add another layer of meaning to the word,
A layer inspired by the philosopher Plato
Who lived 2500 years ago
In a world where gay romance was as common and natural
As grass and leaves.

According to him, the unjust do more
Than simply create the conditions of inequality.
The unjust are soul-crushing tyrants
Who destroy the talent and creativity of a people.
The unjust derail the arc of personal histories, of national histories,
And of human history.

Justice, on the other hand, is the commitment to a common creative destiny.
Justice is the act of encouraging the best from all for the benefit of all.

A society committed to justice wouldn't fire workers because they're gay.
A society committed to justice could never be threatened by the commitment of two people in a loving relationship.
A society committed to justice would ask what insight transgendered people have to offer
Instead of condemning them to the margins of society.

Honestly, on its own,
I'm not sure which way the arc of history is bending for us.
So far, it only seems to bend
When we ourselves have the courage and conviction to bend it.
This was the lesson of Harvey Milk, of ACTUP, of the Stonewall, Compton Cafeteria, and White Night Riots.

Because there's a difference between being peaceful and being passive.
And in the face of injustice, maybe rage is a more genuine expression of hope than cheerful indifference.

We are the history we�ve been waiting for.

But if we�re going to bend America towards justice
We need the full weight of everyone:
Because our history is black history,
It is latino history,
It is working-class history.
And whether our political enemies like it or not,
It�s American history.

I believe we can win. But only with courage and the will to fight
If we don't betray ourselves
And we don't betray one another, we'll win
Through the power of our conviction alone, we'll win.

I leave you with a quote from the writer, Alain Badiou
Who learned about courage from his father
Who joined the French Resistance and fought the Nazi Occupation:

It is not the signs of power that count
Nor exemplary lives
But what a conviction is capable of: here, now, and forever.