One of the biggest news stories of the second part of 2011 has been the Occupy Wall Street movement . I am a huge supporter of their goals and bristle when people say that although it’s nice, they "really don’t stand for anything." The OWS movement may lack unified leadership, but their primary message is consistent and resonates with the majority of Americans: End corporate ownership of our elected officials and return our democracy back to the people. Simple. Rational. Just.
The more I thought about the goals of OWS I wondered if there is any special reason for the GLBT community to be supportive of the movement. It did not take long to come up with some very important reasons. The most common thread of agreement in the OWS movement is that people feel a sense of detachment and that the system is rigged to keep people from succeeding. The economic disparity was also ranked highly. That is of special concern to the GLBT community. According to a recent study in the US, gay men who live together earn 23 percent less than married men, and 9 percent less than unmarried heterosexual men who live with a woman.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.