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Marches have purpose

To the editor,

Marches against bigotry and homophobia are healing. I live a breath away from the Rainbow Planet, where the homophobic attack took place. The stabbing reignited my fears, shattering my marginal illusory shield of safety, and my own internal homophobia also surfaced. I felt fragmented, scared and outraged. The march was a show of solidarity to the community that violence acts will not be tolerated. And it was healing for me, personally, being in a crowd of thousands committed to decency and love. It healed me to know that I am not alone. It healed me so that I do not have to walk in fear, and I can leave my apartment free to express my sexual orientation. It healed me to know that not only do people march, but they lobby, write letters and fight for rights, forwarding acceptance of gay lesbian bisexual and trans. people.

The march and chants brought awareness to the community through the media, which did an impressive job covering the march. Front pages read: headlines do impact people; seeds of awareness are planted. And though the media, including The Wildcat, gave front page coverage, it missed an important aspect of the march's purpose: which, was to point out that violence is only one part of the systematic homophobia supported by many obvious and even more not so obvious factors. The connection between homophobic stabbings, beatings and threats to the lack of partner benefits at the U of A may be hard to grasp, but, indeed, theses issues are connected. A friend gave me an image of a birdcage to explain how any systematic oppressed works. The lack of partner benefits is one wire in a bird cage. Violence against gays is another. Add to that all the other wires: slanders of 'faggot' yelled in school yards, banning gays from the military, fear that your son may be a sissy, prohibiting gay couples from adopting - and on and on.

Each of these violations makes the wires in the cage. One alone is hard to see how it is oppressive but together they form a trap. This cage has been around me and also inside me from an early age. Marches, lobbying, gay and lesbian alliances help dismantle the cage. So, thank you to all who marched, chanted, cried and laughed with me on Sunday. I'm breaking outta this cage.

Judith Sands

Creative writing senior