A banner will read: ‘END HOMO/TRANSPHOBIC APARTHEID in AMERICA’ and direct attention to the website www.AEBnow.com for The American Equality Bill (AEB), a new proposed bill to secure equal civil rights protections and end the 2nd class citizenship of 30 million LGBTQ Americans.
The activists will lie on the floor like corpses amidst the commuters as the names are read of recent suicides and murders, each victims of homophobia in this country.
Though the linkage to apartheid may surprise some, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu has clearly linked homophobia and apartheid, an Afrikaans word for “apartness,” and even labeled homophobia a “crime against humanity,” referring to the most heinous of crimes. (http://www.afrol.com/
“This country acts like homophobia is an acceptable moral opinion, when in fact it’s the exact opposite. It violates every fundamental ideal of human rights,” said Todd Fernandez, who holds a Masters of Law in Human Rights from the Center for Human Rights, South Africa.*
To end this societal abuse, the AEB Project seeks to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” each fundamental to our nature, to the 1964 Civil Rights Act (CRA), the iconic law introduced by President Kennedy and secured via the efforts of Martin Luther King and gay hero Bayard Rustin, now 46 years ago.
The CRA outlaws discrimination in vast areas of life spanning employment, housing, all public places, and all government buildings and social programs, but its real power lies in its ethical guidance as official U.S. policy against discrimination based on “race, color, sex, national origin and religion.”
“The CRA said no to racism and sexism, and our inclusion will say no to homophobia and transphobia as it should have long ago,” said Iana Di Borna, a full time AEB organizer. “This is the law that allowed a young Barack Obama to dream of becoming President, and our children deserve nothing less.”
Because of this, the AEB is much more than a bill. It is a statement of dignity for the LGBT community that has for too long sought too little, acquiescing to 2nd rate dreams, unable to demand it all until now.
“Each day Congress perpetuates this insidious discrimination against us they are complicit in more deaths, but beyond that they are traitors to the Constitution which has promised us all equal protection of the laws,” said Alan Bounville, a co-leader of the Die-In and the Queer SOS! — a daily vigil outside of Senator Gillibrand’s office to demand the filing of the AEB (now in its 12th day) (see:www.queersos.com).
“With the AEB filed, the gay civil rights movement will begin in earnest,” said Mr. Fernandez, the AEB Project’s Campaign Facilitator. “With 400 symbolically dying in Grand Central the message is clear: We will wait no longer.”
The AEB Project is an undertaking of www.EqualityGiving.org and is an all volunteer, all grassroots effort open to everyone (http://bit.ly/AEBnow).
JOIN this historic event: The Flash Mob: Homophobia Kills Die-In, Friday, October 8th, at 6 p.m., in Grand Central Terminal, NYC. (http://bit.ly/AEBdie-
*(South Africa is the only country in the world to protect “sexual orientation” from discrimination under its Constitution).
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