| My name is Einat Sapegin. I am only 17 years old, but my story and the story of my family contains more hate, more pain, and more fear than any person's story should.
My family is Jewish, and they're from the Soviet Union, where Jews faced violent discrimination, fewer chances for employment and fewer education opportunities. They had to prove that they were sufficiently non-Jewish to simply live a normal life. Still, they faced adversity. My mother was one course short of earning the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree. Her instructor was anti-Semitic, and despite having similar quality work to her non-Jewish peers, he refused to pass her.
When my mother, father and brother became Soviet expatriates and moved to Israel, they had to prove themselves Jewish enough to receive Israeli citizenship. They fought with officials and religious experts to prove themselves worthy of a homeland that was supposedly guaranteed to all Jews. After they overcame this hurdle, they had to adjust. They had to adjust with a new language, a new country, a new national identity and new people. Most difficult of all, they had to adjust to every new citizen getting a government-issued gas mask as a welcome to the country. I, as a baby, also had a gas mask. That was my
welcome into the world. They had to deal with the knowledge that my father might get on the morning bus to Haifa, but that bus might not make it to Haifa. We weren't living in poverty, but we did learn how to
stretch a shekel, with only my father working, and four people to support.
My extended family chose to go to America, following my uncle and his family at the last minute. Leaving my immediate family in a strange country with a newborn. Eventually, we joined my extended family here in America, but our troubles were far from over. My first year in America, was spent in Elizabeth, NJ, in a small, one bedroom apartment, living with with ten other people. My first years in school were spent being taunted for not knowing English. But I understood enough when a
girl told me that she wanted to crush the faces of all the Jews. I was in second grade, and the girl did not get expelled, suspended or even detention. Her seat was moved across the room, and no one spoke of the incident again. No one even asked if I was okay.
In middle school, there were teases about my weight. There was one particularly bizarre rumor of me being a hermaphrodite. But the most painful, was my coming out to someone I thought was close and trust-worthy, but somehow, everyone knew within two days, and it led
to isolation and general middle school torment.
The reason why I'm telling you this, and not reasons why you should support the marriage equality bill legally is because I'm sure you're aware of the law. I'm sure you know that everyone should have equal protection under law and that the law should apply to everyone the same way. I'm sure you know what the Constitution says.
But you didn't know my story. My story is one of hurt and pain. I have come from too much discrimination and I have experienced too much hate for my new country, for my government and my elected officials to tell me I am not good enough. My story is also the same story of so many GLBTQ people. Dates, names, and places are different, but that's trivial. We have all experienced bigotry.
We are done. We are done having to prove ourselves good enough. We are done asking people to deem us worthy of acceptance. We shouldn't need a special seal of approval. The fact that we are citizens and humans
that are capable of love should be enough. We should not have to stand here and plead and convince you to give us the same rights that you innately have.
No one should have to go through a process to prove themselves worthy of rights that everyone else has, but discrimination will never end as long as the government allows it. Call it a civil union, call it a domestic partnership, but let's call it what it really is-- prejudice wrapped in politically safe convention. If you really thought we were
equal, you would not support anything but marriage. The fact that a government had to create and invent a completely new institution just to keep gays away from straights is completely ridiculous.
I tell you now, we are worthy and we are good enough. We should not need a seal of approval, but we do need your vote. We have come through too much to be turned away and we have come through too much
to be confined to a second-class status.
Because no one should have to endure pain, because no one should have to prove themselves worthy, because we are all human, I urge you to support the marriage equality bill. |
