Is it the right time to push for change?

When people ask me... Why are you advocating for international LGBT human rights...when we have many fights here in the U.S. like marriage equality, the dissolving of voting rights act protections, discrimination and trans inclusion, the right for LGBT parents to adopt through government systems?  It is not the right time for this discussion."

Is it ever the 'right time' to advocate for civil or human rights?  If activists of the past had decided to wait for the best time to protest many great movements, that have moved countries forward toward progress, would never had happened.  I advocate through my writing because the cause is something that I deeply care about and because the cause is just.  The effort to liberate others who are living in oppressive environments is central to creating a new vision of society that is built on equality.  The struggle is a touchstone for all of us, as a global society, if we are to move forward.

Personally, I work toward these ends because I can and many others can't for fear of violent retribution.  I make a choice to care about a discrimination that seems so overwhelming and impervious to change.  I have always believed in the power of peaceful social movements which put the needs of the whole above the needs of the one.  Maybe we are not global yet but I believe we will be someday so until then my message may help to build a foundation for future action.

Is it the right time to push for change?  We may never know; but in my view...it is always the right time to teach appreciation for diversity and to stand by a human ethic of equality and justice.


(Written on the day of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.)

A Voice for Peace

A Voice for Peace

One Writer:  Many Communities

     I see myself as…as an author whose work reflects a voice for peace; as an Arab-American woman speaking out for global human rights; as a mother promoting healthy living conditions for poor women and children; and as a lesbian advocating international equality for LGBT people.  The process of living in so many communities can be very tricky.

     Sometimes I don’t know which is more stressful: being “out” as a lesbian in the Arab -American community; being open about being of Arab descent in my local American community; being the “other mother” in the lesbian community; or being a writer about issues that affect poor women and children in the affluent profit-based world of publishing.

     In day-to-day life it as if people see me walking towards them and many labels, cultural assumptions, prejudices, judgments, and other misunderstandings hit me like a freight train.  Upon meeting someone it may take a while for them to get to know me or at least who I am in life.   I see my role in this situation as one that begets patience, compassion and repetition in educating others about me, about my diverse family structure and my cultural communities.   For example:

• In the heterosexual world, I often say things like, “No, I am not my son’s step mom, or the new wife of the ex-husband of his other mother. Well, my son has two mothers because I was married to his other mother.”

• In the LGBT community, I often say things like, “I was not married to a man. I have been a lesbian all of my life. I am both a lesbian and a mother.”

• In the Arab community, I say things like, “I can’t be quiet. I am a writer. That is what I do. Arab-American lesbians can live openly and publically if they chose too. It is their choice.  My parents accept and love me as I am. “

      I am not saying that everyone should live openly today. How we chose to live is a deeply personal choice that each person must make individually.  I only know that this is right for me.  No matter what the consequence I will face it when it comes. I feel that being honest about who I am is essential to my growth as a writer which affects the quality of the literary work I will eventually produce.  More than that, I believe that we need many small voices, artists and activists to be working toward the same goal so that one day our efforts will weave together providing the momentum to push our society forward…forward into a future path lined with peace, equality and compassionate human values.

   That means that I will write about topics unpopular and mix cultural themes in ways that upset some people. I may combine Palestinian themes with lesbian love stories, feature poems about refugee children going to school against farm crops being plowed over by Israeli bull dozers, or write about parenting in poverty and LGBT homeless youth in America. I cannot deny who I am when I write.