So I am all over the Obama bandwagon...like all over it. I have hung out with everyone in the bandwagon, fixed the squeaky wheel once, and bedazzled the hell out of the bandwagon. Having said that, he gets a big old F for gay rights at the moment, and many of his supporters, me included, get failing marks for letting him get away with it. More importantly, supporters of equality get a failing grade for continuing to elect politicians who do not advance the gay agenda.
I don't like that phrase- "gay agenda" because it's not gay, and it's not an agenda. It is so much bigger than those words- it is a fight for equality- ya, that's the ticket. But seriously, it isn't about being gay or straight, just like the civil rights movement wasn't about being black or white. Gay marriage, and many of the other pieces of the "gay agenda" are about being a fully realized, valued, and free human being.
Most of the people reading this (all 2 of you) are probably totally onboard with gay marriage. So I will only provide a brief summary of the argument for gay marriage. EQUAL.RIGHTS.
Okay, a little bit longer of an explanation- there are some 1,100 rights associated with being married, and when you deny marriage to people based on sexual orientation, you deny them those rights. So why does the state even get involved in marriage? Maybe it should totally be left to the church. But it isn't, and so long as the state is handing out marriage licenses, which come with a neat little bundle of special boxes to check on your taxes, visitation rights, and whole areas of law, the state needs to be handing out marriage equally. The argument for the state being involved in marriage has to do with how important marriage is to society- 2 people get married, and then have babies, and buy houses, and have jobs, and raise those kids to get married and have more little shitheads...err babies. But guess what- society isn't doing it that way anymore. The divorce rate is at 50%, married people aren't having babies, and a lot of single people are. Hey, men aren't even necessary anymore in getting a kid!!! Sorry dudes. So unless the state is going to restrict marriage to virile heterosexual couples who want to pop out kids, it is time to really evaluate what the state is doing in the wedding business.
Sorry, big digression there. I will save Michelle's detailed plans for government for another time. Back to my call to action. A freaking judge in TEXAS, yes, TEXAS ruled that the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage "violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection." We will see where that goes. So where are all the pissed off people in so-called blue states, like New York, which should so obviously legalize gay marriage before TEXAS!!!! Well, the people here want gay marriage- the people I hang out with anyway, but they aren't really so upset about it not happening right away, seeing as how it doesn't affect them much. Listen kiddies...it affects you!!!
California is the perfect example of our idleness. Everyone was totally right to think California would never pass Prop 8. Except for how they were wrong. I think people just assumed, because they didn't see the discrimination everyday, that California was down with the Gays. And then a barely realized right was taken away from a number of people who had thought that the place they lived and the people around them accepted them as equal. Because when you don't support gay marriage- Miss sketchy California- you are saying, no offense, that homosexuals aren't the same, and that difference makes them less equal. It's not about religion, or preference, or tradition- it is about equality.
You can't just be down with the gays- you have to be willing to vote out politicians, march on Washington, get pissed off, fight with your Dad (not my Dad, he is totally down with the gays), and hold the people in power responsible for denying rights to your fellow human beings. Obama's got a lot going on right now, but I'm pretty sure they give him a big staff so that he can multitask. He did a good thing in saying he was going to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell. But he didn't even give it a sketchy timeline- the Iraq war has a sketchy timeline, and Iraq is well..sketchy!!! So vote for the other guy- the one not in office, or write one more letter, or yell at one more person on the street. Be revolutionary! We just can't keep saying- it takes time. Because rights don't get better the longer you wait for them.
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." ~Letter from a Birmingham Jail
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As one of the 2 people reading this I agree with you... theoretically. But to be honest with you, while I absolutely support gay marriage, gay adoption, and general equal rights for gays, after what happened in California with the backlash against Prop 8, I've found it hard to even argue for this anymore. My heart's not in it and I hurt.
ReplyDeleteAs a black woman, I find it disgusting that so many white gays resorted to blatant racism when Prop 8 passed. Somehow 8% of the state's population passed such a controversial bill. Please!
So what I really find myself wanting to talk about nowadays is racism in the gay community because let's face it, what does the poster child for gay rights look like? Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris, not however, Wilson Cruz or Sheryl Swoopes... And just because those white people will get equal rights one day, will their black and brown brothers and sisters? I'm not so sure.
I agree with you. I think that minorities/oppressed groups/non-white hetero middle class or above groups have a serious issue in reaching across the aisle. It isn't new- women weren't allowed to speak for the abolishist movement, and women's rights got pushed out of that dialogue. Living in Harlem, I see that the gay community is a bit more oppressed here than it is in other parts of Manhattan. My experience living in this city is that gay African Americans identify more with the gay community than with the black community. At the same time, the gay community isn't exactly lifting up minority spokespeople. To be honest, I think the mainstream had more to do with saying that African Americans/hispanics were responsible with the passing of Prop 8. That's a nice scapegoat for everyone right? Then people end up fighting- like you pointed out. Black civil rights leaders should be at the front lines for gay rights- in my opinion it is the same ideology. Gays shouldn't let the mainstream trick them into bickering with other minority groups. It's sad. I should stop and make this a whole new blog....someday.
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