Dokiman Rezistans lan: Semèn sa a nan batay pou jistis

Protecting a dream

Blog pa Ricardo Martinez (li/li menm), Direktè Egzekitif

If I’m being completely honest, I’d like to get married. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be turning 43. I’m the last of my siblings to get hitched and one of the last of my college friend group to have that experience.  

I’ve imagined my mom walking me down the aisle. I want my best friend and fiercest straight ally to be my best man. And, if I’m able, I want to eventually provide a loving home to children who need one or explore assisted reproduction to become a father. 

This dream, only fully available to me in the last ten years thanks to the long-term work of GLAD Law and other advocates, is one that I don’t usually share with many people. I’m grown enough to remember when marriage wasn’t an option for me, so I’ve always tempered my expectations. And while I shouldn’t have to, the reality is that there are times when that dream feels more fragile and less like a sure thing.  

Marriage equality, and thus my dream, should absolutely be safe and secure. It is protected nationwide by sturdy Supreme Court precedent and federal law, as well as by state law and state constitutional guarantees in several states. It also has strong public support because people across all walks of life understand how marriage and family life can be the grounding center of our lives, provide supports that create stability, and give us a sense of community and collective belonging. 

But as symbolic resolutions are introduced in state legislatures, asking the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell, I can’t help but feel uneasy. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. Many people have expressed worry about what could happen in the future and asked for suggestions on how to protect their relationships. These worries are coming from many quarters – young people with LGBTQ+ parents, siblings, grandparents, other family members, and friends, and of course LGBTQ+ people themselves – because marriage equality touches and benefits entire communities across the country. 

Let me be crystal clear: No state can take your marriage away. These resolutions, should they pass, will not invalidate anyone’s current marriage or prevent same-sex couples from marrying in any state. Any effort to unravel the freedom to marry would be long and difficult. GLAD Law and our partners are committed day in and day out to defend that freedom. 

These brazen antics signal an attempt to pick a fight. Stunts happen in politics, and the media amplifies them, causing sensory overload. But the silver lining of these resolutions is that they remind people about something that deeply matters: families.  

Families are precious, whatever their makeup, and attempts to undermine them ignite our instinct to protect them. And we should – LGBTQ+ families are part of every community. In the end, many members of our community (but certainly not all) are getting married and raising kids, and LGBTQ+ families have hopes, dreams, successes, and struggles like any other. Threats to disrupt families are bad for everyone.  

While I work on creating my family and living out my dream, I feel honored to be able to help protect those families that have already been forged – including my kid brothers’. Six years ago, he got married to a wonderful man in Mystic, Connecticut. Being granted the opportunity to be part of the organization that helped pave that path for him makes me feel like I’ve come full circle in some way – and it also deepens my sense of responsibility.  

As we see so many things shaken up, it is hard not to worry about attempts to shake up marriage equality – symbolic or otherwise. But I know GLAD Law is preparing every day for any possibility. We will be there, with our allies, to defend against any attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality decision and to protect the dreams of so many like me. 

Sa pou konnen, sa pou fè: 

• Learn what steps you can take now to strengthen legal protections for your family, in our LGBTQ+ Marriage and Families FAQ.  
• Pataje istwa ou! One way we can protect equality is through conversations about why marriage matters to us and to others.  
• Reflect with GLAD Law’s Mary Bonauto on the long road to marriage equality and how we defend it, and our entire community, together.
• Track GLAD Law’s legal challenges to the Trump administration’s executive orders, as well as challenges from other organizations.
• Enskri pou resevwa dènye nouvèl yo ak opòtinite pou pran aksyon pou jistis LGBTQ+.

Li plis edisyon Rezistans Brief la.

Dokiman Rezistans lan: Semèn sa a nan batay pou jistis

Turning fear into action

Blog pa Ricardo Martinez (li/li menm), Direktè Egzekitif

Do you remember the energy back in 2017? The outrage, the immediate backlash, the knit pink hats, celebrities being vocally unafraid? The mass mobilizations everywhere ignited hope and kept folks from creeping into despair. That fever pitch of civic engagement peaked with the emergence of the national #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.

On a local level, in Texas, I recall a similar moment of collective outrage that felt like an awakening when Governor Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents of trans kids. People uniformly felt their moral Spidey-Senses signaling the premonition of an impending threat and, as such, an urgency in action.

Once again, after the initial shock of this administration’s “flood the zone” with cruelty strategy, people are regaining their footing and finding their voice. I see glimpses of collective outrage and action, and I see it across issues, perhaps ushering in a collective cross-movement resistance. People are strategically agitating, thinking of workarounds to the mess created by DOGE and responding to this administration’s affront to American values of freedom, privacy, respect, and community.

• Communities are leading Know Your Rights trainings on how to claim your rights if faced with ICE agents;
• Consumers are engaging in boycotts to confront the staggering influence of billionaires on our lives and political system;
• Outraged Americans are organizing protests in cities across the United States, showing up at town halls, and making calls to their federal and state senators and representatives;
• Doctors are sharing vital information about infectious diseases on social media;
• Organizations like GLAD Law are surging litigation efforts to stop, delay, and minimize the impact of these attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and our democracy.

At a time when the federal government is testing how much brutality Americans will tolerate against vulnerable people, this is the moment for action. It is the time to embrace our grief and fear, access our courage, and decide what our contributions to the resistance will be. 

There is a lot at stake. 

The Trump administration wants us to be numb to the complete expulsion of all transgender people from military service, shutting down global funding of HIV treatment access, the demonizing of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the exploitation of our children’s health and wellbeing. So many things that should be absolutely safe and secure feel like they’re being shaken up, including marriage equality, which has been undeniably good for kids, families, and society.

The last six weeks have left no doubt that there is a broad plan at work to deny LGBTQ+ people, BIPOC, and all women their fundamental rights and to test and erode democratic institutions. We cannot forget our moral strength and obligation to recognize and resist authoritarianism in all its forms.

We cannot tell ourselves that attacks on the rights or freedoms of others don’t touch us directly – because distance from brutality offers no protection from its reach.

GLAD Law will continue to show up to work every day to protect those rights and freedoms. Thank you for being part of this resistance with us.​​​​​

Sa pou konnen, sa pou fè: 

• Tcheke the brief we filed with Lambda Legal, Mintz, and leading healthcare organizations in Kennedy kont Braidwood, urging the Supreme Court to uphold no-cost access to PrEP and other preventive healthcare services.
• Learn more about how the Trump administration’s termination of USAID contracts devastates programs like HIV medication access.
• Spread the word about One Iowa’s call for Iowans to contact Governor Reynolds and stop a bill that would remove civil rights protections for transgender people in the state.
• Vizite our webpage tracking GLAD Law’s challenges to Executive Orders, as well as challenges from other movement organizations.
• Sign up to resevwa mizajou on GLAD Law’s work for LGBTQ+ justice.

Li plis edisyon Rezistans Brief la.