“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married…”

Driving to work this morning, I listened to a man rant against an undocumented student named Jose Godinez-Samperio who had passed Florida’s bar exam and was fighting to become a licensed attorney: Illegal aliens are taking up too much space. These are the same Dream Act kids blocking the streets with their protests.

Last week, I read a letter to the editor in our local paper criticizing suffrage for women because it gave them the freedom to cut their hair, wear pants, and leave the home.

A few days ago, I learned that a friend’s partner of some thirty years had succumbed after a long bout with cancer. My friend kept vigil beside his partner for months and months as the disease worsened. I will not list the traditional marriages wherein one spouse abandoned the other during a prolonged illness, though two prominent political figures come to mind (both who are anti-marriage equality). My friend has now lost the love of his life, and all I can think is that if those two weren’t family, then who is?  The term marriage would have been lucky to have them.

The same as the United States would be lucky to have a man like Jose Godinez-Samperio as a citizen.

The same way we are fortunate that women, though still often denied equal wages and basic respect, have shattered the glass ceiling that once contained them.

What do these things have in common? The anti-gay. The anti-immigrant. The anti-woman. They are primarily motivated by a shift in our cultural geography that threatens folks who have long been in power.

I will not condemn North Carolina. There are many fine, wonderful people in the state, and to shun the state as a whole would be to condemn many other states and parts of this country I love. But I will condemn the narrow-minded, fear-based intolerance and hatred that allows people to justify telling me that what I have with my husband is not marriage.

I hold firm to the belief that love will eventually conquer fear. But sometimes we have to help love along. I urge you to contact your politicians, your friends, your neighbors. I urge you to speak out and up for the disenfranchised, for the child who deserves to be a citizen, for the couple whose family deserves legal protection and recognition, for the woman who can do her job ten times better than the man who makes more than her.

We aren’t there yet. But together, we’ll get there.

No H8.

Speak up.

–Bryan

Blantantly copied and pasted straight from the Arkansas Times from their listings for Saturday, April 14:

Queer for You (Cox Creative Center, 3rd floor, 4 p.m.). Poets Bryan Borland (“My Life as Adam”), Nickole Brown (“Sister”) and Ed Madden (“Prodigal Variations”) will talk about building readership for work that addresses LGBTQ life. Borland, from Alexander, is editor of Assaracus, a quarterly journal of gay poetry; Nickole Brown, at one time an editorial assistant to Hunter S. Thompson, teaches at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and Ed Madden, an Arkansas native, is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

Magazine (Oxford American, 5:30 p.m.). The editors of three of the most well-regarded — and read — literary magazines gather to give a behind-the-scenes peek into the process of assembling their publications. With Marc Smirnoff of the Oxford American, Heidi Julavits of The Believer and Marco Roth of n+1. Of added interest, n+1 has been critical of The Believer and McSweeney’s, the company that publishes The Believer, so mannered sparks may fly. Perhaps more compelling, the Oxford American will be serving free cocktails during the panel and afterwards at a reception that lasts until 7:30 p.m.

Pub or Perish (Lulav: A Modern Eatery, 7 p.m.). David Koon, the Arkansas Times’ own Mark Twain, once again wraps up Saturday night’s festivities by handing the mike to local greats, who’ll read before an audience prone to tears and laughter thanks to ongoing lubrication from the bar.

For more on these and other readings and panels, visit the Arkansas Lit Fest website.

© Bryan Borland

Ekphrastic Poetry Slam (Guest Judge)
Saturday, February 25
7:30 PM
Arkansas Arts Center
501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock, Arkansas

Collective Brightness: Religion through Poetry
Sunday, February 26
10:00 AM – Room 222
First United Methodist Church – The Forum
Conway, Arkansas

BLOOM Presents DIVINING DIVAS
Thursday, March 1
6:00 PM
Rehab Cocktail Lounge
3641 N Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois

AWP
March 1 – March 3
Chicago, Illinois

Assaracus: A Celebration of Gay Poetry
Friday, March 23
7:30 PM
CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

Rainbow Book Fair
Saturday, March 24
11 AM – 5:30 PM 
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, New York

LGBT Panel with Nickole Brown and Ed Madden
Arkansas Literary Festival
Saturday, April 14
Time & Location TBD

Sibling Rivalry Press Showcase
Saturday, April 28
3:00 PM
Decatur Library
215 Sycamore Street
Decatur, Georgia