i'm passionate about a lot of things... equal rights

I'm passionate about many things. I'm passionate about equality. i don't like to call it gay rights just because I happen to be gay. I don't eat gay breakfast or go to gay university or buy gay tires for my gay car. You don't wear "first generation immigrant clothes" or work at a "women's job". When you and your spouse were married they didn't call it "heterosexual African-American-marriage." When you adopted your first child they didn't call it "single white female-adoption." Why then would I call my basic civil rights, "gay rights"? I'm passionate about equal rights and you should be too.

Because the minute we allow this nation to pick and choose who is deserving of equality and who is not is the minute that we have become everything that we claim to despise. This nation allowed segregation and hatred to fester for centuries and here we are on the precipice of allowing fear and hatred to motivate yet another decision to discriminate against a portion of our society.

Our constitution was inspired by the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." We've come to accept that by men they meant humankind, mankind, both men and women. So if it is self-evident that all humanity is equal why then is our society struggling to "grant" equality to all of our citizens?