Below is the prepared text of my speech for the Rally for Love and Justice, February 12, 2006, 2:00 PM at El Presidio Park in Tucson:

Good afternoon. When Cathy first asked me to speak at today’s rally, I have to admit that I was a little confused. Cathy knows very well my opinion of marriage within the LGBT community, that I oppose assimilation and that I am quite happily single and intend to remain that way. But Cathy, being the shrewd community organizer that she is, also knows that I abhor injustice and tend to support the underdog, even if I’m not totally aligned with every argument they put forward.

I could go on and on about why I think this is the wrong battle for the LGBT community at the wrong time and about how it is sucking the air out of the room, leaving too few precious resources for the many other battles that we must fight. I won’t go on about how this has largely been presented as a privileged and white issue, about how it is taking energy and funding from other equality issues like job and housing discrimination protections that do affect ALL members of our community, especially our most vulnerable. I won’t talk about the historically oppressive nature of the institution of marriage and how women have been subjugated for centuries because of it. I won’t go on about the senselessness of defining our relationships through Domestic Partnership Registries, Marriage Licenses or any other slaveholding documents. But most of all, I won’t go on about how this is keeping us on the defensive from our enemies when we need to be on the offensive, defining the debate in our own terms.

What I will say, though, is that we shouldn’t legislate relationships. Nobody should have that kind of power. You see, opposing same-sex marriage and opposing the “Destroy Family Arizona” Amendment are not mutually exclusive. Far from it. By identifying as an anti-assimilationist, I affirm that all relationships are valid on whatever terms those consenting adults agree to. My own parents have been married for close to 42 years. I love them; I just don’t want to be them. We lose something of our own distinctiveness when we assimilate around an issue so central to our identities as whom we love.

This proposed amendment is a slippery slope; once domestic partnerships are outlawed, what’s next? Will I be thrown in jail someday because I live alone? How long before it becomes illegal for me to work with children as part of my job? These may seem like extreme examples, but this amendment and others like it really open up those floodgates.

The title for this rally struck me. I don’t care to know much about love, but I do feel I know a thing or two about justice.

If I love anything, I love history, and the sense of perspective one can derive from knowing the past. As you know, today marks the 197th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln asked, “Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better, or equal hope, in the world?”

President Lincoln knew, 150 years ago, that the people of this great land should be trusted to ensure the fulfillment of that great promise on which this country is founded, that liberty and justice must be enjoyed by all her people. It is indeed that better, equal hope that survives to this day, in this assembled crowd. As we continue in our great struggle toward justice, let us remember that laws should be written to serve that noble goal, but the amendment we gather here today to oppose would take us in the exact opposite direction of true justice.

Whether you support or oppose the institution of marriage, you should demonstrate your commitment to and love of justice by voting NO on November 7.