"My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, 'We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny… an inescapable network of mutuality,… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.' Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.
Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.”
Coretta Scott King,
speaking at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change Conference on November 9, 2000.
In my last post (2 freakin' months ago!) on Rev. Steve, I quoted Socrates -- "The unexamined life is not worth living." That quote is so much more than just something clever to post when there's nothing else to say. They are words that I've tried to live by as I've stumbled my way through this life.
So many people live their lives in absolute certainty, never questioning their beliefs or what motives them to say and do the things that define them. To my way of thinking, those people are fools.
So what have I been up to for the last several weeks? For the most part, I've been involved in moving to North Carolina, looking for work, training for the job I got and getting the house settled. There have also been the humdrum details on finding my way around town, meeting people and getting used to living next door to my in-laws, who are a never-ending source of self-induced drama.
All of this has left me a little too preoccupied to feel the creative muse, but has given me the opportunity to think about the direction I want to take with my online endeavors. I think it's healthy to take a step back now and then and try to look at things from a different perspective. What I began to see was my place in what's been called the LGBT Echo Chamber. My intent in writing this blog has always been to offer my own opinion on newsworthy topics that are relevant to the fight for equality.
I often butt heads with my fellow queer bloggers by taking the opposite side of issues after digging a little more deeply into the subject at hand. I think it's become way too easy to simply go with the flow and repost what other people have written and add my own remarks just for the sake of filling the blank space. Just spend an afternoon watching the news flow on Facebook to see what I mean. With a few exceptions, they're all saying the same thing.
While I think that there are lots of talented bloggers out there whose work is worth sharing, I've begun to think that I've become overly dependent on the copy and paste mentality that has become the norm in the LGBT blogosphere. I found that my creativity has suffered as a result.
The fight for equality has evolved so quickly over the last few years. The idea of marriage equality has become mainstream. Even mainstream conservatives and church leaders have come to accept that. Yet so much of what I've read on some of my favorite blogs sounds so much the same.
So, I've decided that it's time for a fresh start. I'm suspending Rev. Steve's Cyber-Pulpit and am working on launching a new site that I hope will be a fresh look at the fight for equality with an emphasis on what's happening in local efforts across the US and around the world, which is where I believe real change is happening from the ground up. I like to think of it as Steve 2.0, which, come to think of it, is not a bad name for a blog. Hmmm.
This site is still a work in progress, so add it to your favorites and check back for updates.
