What a week it’s been. How are you feeling?
Despite everything, and we mean everything, it seems we’re going into the weekend with two pieces of good news today. First, Taiwan legalizes same sex marriage (!), the first place in Asia to do so. We loved hearing from some of you who are from there telling us how excited, happy, and grateful you felt. Waking up to this news was a really good start to the day, and it actually got even better by noon with more good news coming in.
The US House of Representatives passed The Equality Act (!!!). The bill was first introduced in 2015 and it protects members of the LGBTQ+ community from being discriminated against in the workplace, housing, etc. Besides that, according to Vox, it “would also expand public accommodations protections to prohibit discrimination based on sex, and strengthen other existing protections in public accommodations — by, for instance, ensuring that retail stores and banks are covered.”
It’s a start, but it isn’t a for sure thing just yet. It still has to go through the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, who, for the most part, aren’t usually in favor of LGBTQ+ rights. We don’t know if it will become law or not, but we’re hoping for the best and going to do what we can to help.
Isn’t it wild to think it isn’t illegal in all states for a business to fire you because you’re gay? Or for a restaurant to turn you away because of how you identify? In some states, like California, New York, Washington (and DC), and Oregon, along with only a handful of others, there are already protections in place for LGBTQ+ persons, but it’s so crazy to think that in 2019 it’s still legal in most states in the US. This is a huge step for our community and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here!
Tonight will be spent with big glasses of wine, popcorn, and our fur babies on the couch. We already got some play time in with Ari so we’re going into the weekend with optimistic hearts and minds. We hope you are too, friend.
xx
(image via here)
