42 days: Chris Benjamin

This post is a guest post for the 42 days series. Learn more here!

I am human.

I am a brother, a son, a friend. I work fulltime, I go to school fulltime, and I try my darnedest to have somewhat of a social life. I love coffee at late hours, I read, I write. I love a really great plate of nachos and my preferred drink is a Long Island Iced Tea. I think mayonnaise is absolutely disgusting and generally avoid eating anything from a jar. I am kind, I am intelligent, I am sarcastic, and some days I fancy myself a poet. I do my best to make this world a better place it was than before, whether it be through advice, a hug, or just telling someone a joke. I am gay.

Even though I am a complex mixture of various traits and flaws, it is this last part that people seem to care about the most. Because I am gay, most people think of me as vile, a sinner, somebody who is less of a person than they are. They think that I “choose” this horrible lifestyle and that somehow my existence is corrupting the very foundation of society.

They forget that I am human.

That is what the proponents of the marriage amendment are doing; saying that “We” (and by “we” I mean anybody who is not entirely a cookie-cutter image of them, “we” the people who want our happiness, our joy) that “We” are not in the same standing as “Them”. That “We” are not of the same station because of our LOVE. They invalidate our LOVE, our JOY and want to eliminate our RIGHT to choose whatever path of happiness that we deserve.

I am voting NO on the marriage amendment because I have the RIGHT to make my own HAPPINESS. I am a citizen of this country, I pay my taxes, I do my contributions and I should be treated in the same way as my other fellow citizens.

This amendment is a statement that I am LESSER, that I do not DESERVE the same rights, that I, I am a subpar citizen, a SECONDCLASS citizen. Essentially, I am not Human.

And I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly.

I disagree with this attempt to ERADICATE my ability (and many others) to choose the HAPPINESS in their lives.

I disagree with the HATRED within these people’s hearts.

I disagree with the FACISM.

I disagree with the BIGOTRY.

I am Human and I am voting NO. 

Chris Benjamin, student majoring in Communication Studies, and Anthropology. I've been out of the closet for almost 11 years and really want to help others in the coming out process.

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