Straight Allies Working Hard

One of my best friends I met during the Equality Ride was a straight student from Samford University, Emily Holladay. She has become a huge ally and is the founder of their school's Gay-Straight Alliance. Her position tends to get her some of the same oppressive responses that LGBTQ students experience. In light of February being Black History Month, she wrote an article that celebrated the civil rights movement, but also called us to realize that we have only begun our movement towards civil rights.

Can we honestly look around, see such discrimination, and still claim that America does not have a civil rights problem?
Coretta Scott King once said, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’” Read More.

Emily unfortunately was met with resistance of students that are victims of misinformation and often don't understand the concept of equality or inclusive love. Here are some quotes from an email she got from a fellow student:

The government keeps homosexuals out of the military for other reasons than your illogical assumption. The government is not scared of them, or "uncomfortable" (as you put it) with homosexuals in the military, the soldiers are! The soldiers have the right to be uncomfortable around anybody (including bathing and sleeping near homosexuals). And, in order for our military to be the most effective, our soldiers need not be distracted or uncomfortable around the people they are fighting alongside.

It seems that you have made a follied attempt to uncover a fake contusion left over from previous influential decades of American history. Your points in your article are dangerous, insulting, and disgusting. It makes me sad that there are people like you in this world, continuing the trouble between people that are different from each other. If people avoided the mindset you proposed in your article (and the other extreme: discrimination), the world would be a much better place. You hold the opposite and equally errant position that racists, sexists, and the like hold. Step back, take off your blinders, and see for yourself what you have said in your article.

I am amazed at how a heterosexual student is willing to take risks in her education and in her reputation to stand alongside us queer folk to say that we deserve the same rights she has. Thank you to all allies who endure the same oppression we do too!