Advocates Lobby

Footsteps echo in state halls, as office doors open. Will lawmakers listen to citizens’ arguments for recognition of something as foreign to some as sexual orientation and gender identity? Echoes mean little if no one will listen, yet silence delivers nothing. And so they speak, hoping their representatives will hear.

hoping to counter
attempted isolation
advocates lobby

On promo Equality Day, February, 19th, concerned citizens standing up for equality and LGBTQ rights walked the halls of the Missouri Capitol during “promo Equality Day” and visited State Representatives to encourage them to support and pass the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act (MONA). MONA would prohibit discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, such as unlawful housing practices, denial of loans or financial assistance, unlawful employment practices, and denial of access to public accommodations. MONA has been proposed every year since 1998, with growing support each year, and is badly needed in a state where no employee is assured protection from being fired for sexual orientation and public restroom access can be denied, based on gender identity. In a nation established on the protection of rights, some rights continue to be withheld, and any voice supporting those rights deserves to be heard.

This haibun is my response to the prompt for dVerse Poetics: On Privilege, which is to write a poem regarding privilege (or, as in this case, the lack thereof).

Image source: promoonline.org