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Sarah Masinda Professor Lauren Feldkamp UNIV 101 TR 3:30-4:45 September 15, 2013 LBC Essay #2: Meet the Movement: Michigan Marriage ! On Monday, October 7th, my close friend, Tyler Earl-Caphart, and I attended

the Meet the Movement: Michigan Marriage event for LBC credit. It took place in the EMU Student Center in room 301. The attendance was such a success that it was necessary to bring in twice the amount chairs than originally anticipated. The main topic of discussion was providing equal marriage rights to those that are of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender orientations. It was also stressed that the discrimination does not just include marriage, but it also has a major effect in housing, employment, and public accommodation. The audience wrote down questions and handed it to student helpers to pass on to the leaders. This format allowed much debate over a very short time period. Mary Larken, the director of LGBT on campus, introduced the speakers and the multiple topics. Jason Morgah moderated the panel of guests and paraphrased the questions asked by the audience. Every speaker seemed to be incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about the subject. ! Many statistics and new information was provided during my time at the event.

I learned that the majority of those who live in Michigan support the idea of equal marriage. It is shocking to me that Michigans attitude does not represent the current case politically. The popularity of the idea that people with different sexual orientations should be able to adopt is increasing every year. I was happy to learn that my home

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county, Washtenaw, has been a primarily supportive area of LGBT in the state. The major problem has been religious ideals. In my opinion, this is not a legitimate argument because of the distinct separation we have between church and state. The word marriage is now becoming more of a legal denition and less of a title given by the church. Another obstacle is that those with a LGBT title have many misconceptions surrounding them. An outstanding number of citizens, including my previous self, have no idea that it is legal to be red because of suspicion of being gay. It is necessary to overcome these complications in order for equal marriage rights to be included on the 2016 ballot. ! As a person who grew up around a homosexual couple, I had a very personal

reaction to the LBC event. Phillip, my moms best friend, has been gay his entire life. He is the equivalent of an uncle to me and being around a man who is openly gay is nothing new. When I was in middle school, his partner was tragically crushed under the weight of a car while doing engine work. Jim and Phillip were incredibly in love and the dream of being married was never an option because of the restrictive laws. Phillip feels as though it would honor Jim to have justice for the LGBT community. The fact that it has taken so many years to get to this point is frustrating, but we have come a long way. ! In order to have this justice, many people need to get involved. It is necessary

to swing the elderlys votes and ideas about gay rights because it has been proven statistically that their age group oppose the idea the most. This is something I can do by simply having a conversation with those who have a different viewpoint than me. My argument would be that love is love and people deserve to be treated equally. I

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have also signed up for Equality Michigans email list. They send me information regarding getting involved in the movement locally. This idea is represented in chapter 11 of our textbook. Diversity is discussed in this section, which is a key point in the equality debate. It was my interest in diversity that was the deciding factor when choosing which LBC event to attend. ! Out of the few LBC events I have attended on campus, Meet the Movement:

Michigan Marriage has been the most interesting. The speakers were well-informed and energetic. I would highly recommend it to any student at EMU interested in diversity. My only advice would be to get to the room early because the seats lled up quickly. When it was time for concluding statements, I was surprised that two hours had passed because I was entertained the entire time. It was an extraordinary event that it was well worth my time.