Katherine Garcia
Viewpoint by Katherine Garcia
Anti-gay marriage protesters made me realize what’s worth fighting for.
While crossing Loop 410 and San Pedro with a friend once, I saw four people holding a sign in the median.
The sign read, “Man+Woman Equals Marriage” and called for drivers to honk if they believed the statement true.
One man said his concern: without a married man and woman, humanity would not populate the Earth.
I couldn’t believe these four were standing in the median of a busy intersection just to “protest” gay marriage.
No, that’s incorrect, because a protest means you are fighting for a cause; you are fighting to improve something.
These people just wanted approval from other closed-minded people.
Marriage equality is not an issue needing attention; it’s every citizen’s right, so let’s move on and work on real problems.
They could be raising awareness about sexual assault, for example.
According to an infographic on AlamoCares, one in five Texas women is assaulted in her lifetime.
These people could have been raising money for the Battered Women’s and Children’s Shelter, which provides a 24-crisis hotline, an on site children’s school, adult education and transitional housing for women and children.
Or they could volunteer with the San Antonio Food Bank, which feeds 16 counties in Texas, the second-most food insecure state in the nation.
According to their website, “58,000 people receive emergency food assistance from an agency in the San Antonio Food Bank network.”
Half of those people receiving emergency food assistance are forced to choose between food and other necessities.
These and other noble causes would be worth the hours spent on the intersection simply asking drivers for their approval of the issue.
Sure, the group can rest assured that they’re not alone in their ideals, but they are only serving themselves.
Instead of targeting people who are different simply because they were born to want to love the same gender, they should be making a real difference in the world.
Instead of advocating hate, they should be advocating love.
The group is not only wasting their time, but they’re not helping anyone.
People should help and stop judging and hating.
Apply the energy of hating and use that to find someone who could use your help, not your judgment.
