As many of you know, there has been a recent outcry over the ASM endorsement for the LGBT Equality March in Washington D.C. Perhaps you didn't know that over 50 student body presidents around the country have endorsed this march already, among them being leaders from UCLA, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Tufts, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, and American; need I go on?
The question of rights for LGBT people is certainly far more than a simple political question. The question of LGBT rights in America is a question of equality; something that goes far beyond normal politics. Certain rights are inherent for all individuals, and when some rights apply to some individuals (such as marriage rights), and not others, then there is a problem. This indicates injustice and oppression.
The application for funds from ASM has been attacked for a few reasons. First off, the mission of the march has been deemed ""unclear"". The mission of this trip is to begin a grass roots organizing campaign to end LGBT injustice. The mission of this trip is to raise visibility for LGBT rights. Interestingly enough, opponents of this movement have done just that; by negatively publicizing this march they have raised issues surrounding LGBT rights.Thus they have fulfilled at least something a little more than providing ""emotional benefit"" to participants and ""a hope for a better world"" as some people have claimed are the only benefits of this march. Because the opponents have addressed this issue they are helping the march participants complete their goal of raising awareness, imagine that.
Lastly, I can't see what would better represent the student body as a whole. This movement affects EVERY person in the United States whether that person is gay, lesbian, bi, trans, inter-sex, or straight.
How does this affect straight people you ask? After reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s ""Letter from a Birmingham Jail"", I realized how much it applies to this movement. King said, ""injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"". Essentially those who do not fight the injustices in the world are prolonging them.
Just as people have proclaimed ASM support unwise, so too did King's peers deem support for the Civil Rights Movement as ""unwise and untimely"", and so too did King reply, ""justice too long delayed is justice denied"".
-Maxwell Love
Freshman, International Studies
