Written on this 6th day of September, 2014…a new dream has taken the place of the old dream that was spoke of in Washington, D.C. on the 28th day of August in 1963 by Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. who also had a dream.  My dream and his dream are kind of different yet very similar.   His dream turned into more of a nightmare where my dream actually grasps reality.

On July 4th, 1776, a group of men of our country wrote the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence signing a promise note to which EVERY American was to benefit from.  This note was a promise that ALL men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

                               

It is very obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of sexual orientation are concerned.  Instead of honoring the sacred obligation, America has given the homosexual people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds”.  We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt.  We have come to cash this check that will give us freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of NOW.  Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of hatred to the sunlit path of justice.  Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all our children.  It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the homosexual.

In 1963, King told his supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that “1963, is not the end, but a beginning.”  In 2014, I am telling you, my dreamers from the computer desk in my home in Orlando, Florida that back in 1969, the Stonewall Riots was also not an end, but too, a beginning.   I was three years old too young to remember the events of the Raid but the whirlwind of that revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

        

 In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.  Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

The new militancy which has engulfed the homosexual community must not lead us to distrust of all straight people, for many of our straight brothers (and sisters), have come to realize that their destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.  And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead.  We cannot turn back.  There are those who are asking the devotees of gay and lesbian rights, “When will you be satisfied?”

We cannot be satisfied as long as hatred saturates ignorant minds.  No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and the righteousness like a mighty stream.   I am not unmindful that some of you come from great trials and tribulations.  Some of you have come fresh from the closet.  Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and the staggered by the wings of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering.  Go back to Massachusetts, go back to Nebraska, go back to Wyoming, go back to New York knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

I still have a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.  I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”  I have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their sexual orientation but by the content of their character.  I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day a gay man can kiss the lips of his boyfriend and not be ridiculed.  I have a dream that one day a gay or lesbian couple can receive the same benefits of straight couples and that love will conquer hate.  I have a dream that one day we ALL can stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.  LET FREEDOM RING!

When we let freedom ring, we let it ring from every homophobic state and every city, we will be able to speed up that when all of OUR gay, lesbian, bi and transgendered children, straight men/women and gay men/women, will be able to join hands and sing, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank YOU, we are free at last!