Courtesy of HuffPo:
Now there’s a new reason to seriously start investigating the possibility of civilian space travel: one of our favorite non-profit organizations just declared the universe LGBT-friendly.
Planting Peace’s latest display of solidarity with the queer community involves a Pride flag, a high altitude balloon and a GoPro camera. The group, which regularly launches social activism campaigns to raise awareness about issues like LGBT rights and deworming children in developing countries, used the balloon to elevate a rainbow flag up through the Earth’s atmosphere. It eventually reached its peak altitude approximately 21.1 miles above the planet.
The flag remained airborne, floating in outer space for just over three hours before making its descent back to Earth, in what Planting Peace says is a symbolic declaration of the universe as an LGBT-friendly space.
In all seriousness it has been one of the great joys of my life to watch the progress we have made as a people in these last eight years now.
In 2000 George W. Bush ran on conservative "morality" issues and in 2004 supported an amendment to ban gay marriage. Today we see wide acceptance of the LGBTQ community, and same sex marriage is legal in all states.
We see gay couples in advertisements, on TV shows, and quite frequently in our own families.
So why not alert the universe to how far we have come?
Maybe an alien race will decide that we are finally evolved enough to deserve a visit.
And wouldn't THAT put a lot of things into a different perspective?
Honest, when I was 13 in 1967 and trying to break my realization to my mother and step-father, he told me, "You can't be homosexual [no one said 'gay' yet] because you're not interested in fixing women's hair and clothes, you don't listen to classical music, and you don't like ballet."
ReplyDeleteAs ignorant as that sounds today, it was not at all out of line with middle class thinking in a pre-Donahue, pre-Oprah world. Today I often wonder if I could time-travel back, could I convince that man, 50 years ahead gays would be both openly in the military and legally married too?
Honest again, you can be gay yourself and still shocked at the acceleration of change.
We just spent several lovely days in Chicago with friends from abroad. As we took the elevator to our rooms the day we arrived, we were accompanied by a gay couple who were visiting from NYC. They couldn't have been more pleased with the cleanliness of the city and the friendliness they were encountering. We responded that that was also why my husband and I like to visit Chicago, that and the museums and the symphony. In the following days we bumped into the gay couple from NYC several times; it was almost like knowing someone in a city where none of us knew anyone. How can people see a threat to themselves by being around gays?
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
It's a shame everyone can't understand something so simple. You are a blessing Beaglemom.
DeleteMaybe I'm a killjoy, but this seems like a lot of money, time and effort for really nothing. Couldn't those resources have been used in a better way to advance the cause of gay rights?
ReplyDeletePS: Yes, Beaglemom is a blessing here. I always look forward to her comments and I've no doubt her "kids" (2 or 4 legged) are very lucky!
I look at it as the butterfly effect, something as common as the movement of a butterfly wing growing to become something much more than the sum of it's parts.
ReplyDeleteI feel fortunate to live in this period of time, I've witnessed so much that was once not even allowed to be a dream, and have the hard work, sweat, sacrifice of so many to thank for it. I never dreamed my nephew could enjoy the rights and privileges Marriage gives, not to mention become parents, etc.