LGBT Rights And Lives Are on The Ballot Tomorrow. How Will You Vote?

I have been writing frequently about just how hostile the Romney/Ryan ticket and the Republican Party as a whole has become towards LGBT Americans.  As the image above that lays out the GOP party platform on LGBT issues indicates, Romney/Ryan and the GOP oppose every single issue that might improve the lives of average LGBT citizens.  If the GOP wins tomorrow, we in the LGBT will likely lose a great deal  - marriage equality in many states, protections against being summarily fired from ones job for being gay, hospital visitation rights, the list goes on and on.   Nadine Smith, the Executive Director of Equality Florida, has been circulating a message to friends and family that lays out what is at stake.  Here's the text of what she has been sharing (each of us needs to do the same):

Will you vote for President Obama to help my family? Those of us who are part of the LGBT community have often settled for a unquiet peace with our friends and family. We've been through the hard part of coming out and having grown up in places hostile to our existence we settle for silence over honesty. We settle into our own form of Don't ask, Don't tell. We don't tell our families and friends about our fears or hardships and they don't ask.

We don't tell them we worry about losing our job because of prejudice. We don't share the times we have been physically menaced. We never mention being blindsided by disrespect and humiliation. We keep silent about the fear that we cannot legally protect our loved ones because our marriages aren't recognized. We don't discuss the financial burden of tax credits and benefits denied to us and our children. We don't tell, and our friends and family don't ask. In the silence between us, the people closest to us vote against us often unaware of the injury they are inflicting. It is time for us to end this civilian Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

We are not disagreeing about zoning matters and taxes. Our citizenship as fully protected and included Americans is on the ballot. Yes, some of the people we love will vote against us, against our spouses, against our safety and against our children.

But others will see for the first time the stakes and they will stand with us. They've never truly been asked and right now, it is time for us to tell them.

And yes, I have shared this with friends and family via Facebook.  If some are offended, I'm sorry.  But the equal civil rights of citizens is more important that a promised tax break even if one believes a single word that Mitt Romney says.  The importance of votes and what it will do to others needs to be driven home.