Carrie and Elisia Ross-Stone rode their bicycles across America to bring awareness to the issue of same-sex marriage. Known as the "Rainbow Grannies," The two women decided a bike ride would be a good way to bring their message of marriage equality and gay marriage rights to people al across America. Carrie and Elisia were the subjects of a documentary film, A Time to Ride. I met Carrie and Elisia when they came to Portland with their film and I had to opportunity to talk to them about the ride and the on-going fight for the right for gay and lesbian marriage equality.
You were featured in the film ?A Time to Ride? about your second cross-country bike ride for marriage equality. Why did you decide to do a ride in 2003? The film was made on our 2004 ride, although we did ride in 2003 as well. Originally, we decided to ride three times across the US, 1st across the southern tier (the 2003 ride) from St. Augustine FL to San Diego CA. 2nd, across the center of the US from San Francisco to NYC (we did this in 2004) and third, across the northern tier from Seattle (we decided to make it Portland) to Boston. We were planning to do the third ride in 2005 but decided to postpone for one year because we need to rest, regroup and do some fundraising. It was very expensive for us to do the rides (we funded them ourselves except for a few small donations) and we were exhausted!
We got the idea for doing the rides in 1996 when Clinton (traitor) signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defining marriage as an institution between one man and one woman and denying federal rights and benefits to gay and lesbian couples who are able to legally marry in another country or in a US State. We were both working full time then and thought we would do it ?someday.? Then, in 2001, Carrie was diagnosed with breast cancer and Elisia had some sort of weird uterine issue that required a hysterectomy (same year!). While Carrie was recovering from a bi-lateral mastectomy, 9/11 happened and we thought we had better do it sooner since there may not be a ?later.? So we started making plans to begin the first ride in the Spring of 2003.
When you set out for your first ride, not even many gay and lesbian organizations were behind you. Why? What did they say?
As we were organizing both rides (2003 and again in 2004) we made contact with national LGBT organizations assuming they would be interested in sponsoring us or at least giving us a hand in some way or another. Not only did they decline to help but many advised us not to do the ride for marriage. Those who did bother to explain said that demanding equal marriage rights now was asking for too much too soon. That is like telling Rosa Parks that she should have waited to sit at the front of the bus? which some black leaders did say back then. Tell gay and lesbian families who suffer loss every day because they have no legal rights that they are asking for too much too soon.
And now of course, with Kerry?s loss, the LGBT ?leadership? (this includes Barney Frank) believe they have been vindicated. We think that is NONESENSE! All struggles for civil rights suffer set backs. If winning equal rights was as easy as asking the majority to ?pretty please let us protect our families? and then they said, ?OK? there would NEVER be a need for a struggle. But there has always been and always will be a need to force the majority to include misunderstood minorities. We are annoyed with the leaders of national GLBT organizations like the HRC and the NGLTF. These people were and are still hesitant to embrace the marriage equality issue. Besides collecting large sums of money from our community and posting information on their website, they are not really using their clout to push for equality for this community. They are not lobbying or organizing around the marriage issue. One can only imagine why that is?
You were featured in the film ?A Time to Ride? about your second cross-country bike ride for marriage equality. Why did you decide to do a ride in 2003? The film was made on our 2004 ride, although we did ride in 2003 as well. Originally, we decided to ride three times across the US, 1st across the southern tier (the 2003 ride) from St. Augustine FL to San Diego CA. 2nd, across the center of the US from San Francisco to NYC (we did this in 2004) and third, across the northern tier from Seattle (we decided to make it Portland) to Boston. We were planning to do the third ride in 2005 but decided to postpone for one year because we need to rest, regroup and do some fundraising. It was very expensive for us to do the rides (we funded them ourselves except for a few small donations) and we were exhausted!
We got the idea for doing the rides in 1996 when Clinton (traitor) signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defining marriage as an institution between one man and one woman and denying federal rights and benefits to gay and lesbian couples who are able to legally marry in another country or in a US State. We were both working full time then and thought we would do it ?someday.? Then, in 2001, Carrie was diagnosed with breast cancer and Elisia had some sort of weird uterine issue that required a hysterectomy (same year!). While Carrie was recovering from a bi-lateral mastectomy, 9/11 happened and we thought we had better do it sooner since there may not be a ?later.? So we started making plans to begin the first ride in the Spring of 2003.
When you set out for your first ride, not even many gay and lesbian organizations were behind you. Why? What did they say?
As we were organizing both rides (2003 and again in 2004) we made contact with national LGBT organizations assuming they would be interested in sponsoring us or at least giving us a hand in some way or another. Not only did they decline to help but many advised us not to do the ride for marriage. Those who did bother to explain said that demanding equal marriage rights now was asking for too much too soon. That is like telling Rosa Parks that she should have waited to sit at the front of the bus? which some black leaders did say back then. Tell gay and lesbian families who suffer loss every day because they have no legal rights that they are asking for too much too soon.
And now of course, with Kerry?s loss, the LGBT ?leadership? (this includes Barney Frank) believe they have been vindicated. We think that is NONESENSE! All struggles for civil rights suffer set backs. If winning equal rights was as easy as asking the majority to ?pretty please let us protect our families? and then they said, ?OK? there would NEVER be a need for a struggle. But there has always been and always will be a need to force the majority to include misunderstood minorities. We are annoyed with the leaders of national GLBT organizations like the HRC and the NGLTF. These people were and are still hesitant to embrace the marriage equality issue. Besides collecting large sums of money from our community and posting information on their website, they are not really using their clout to push for equality for this community. They are not lobbying or organizing around the marriage issue. One can only imagine why that is?
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