| In terms of looking at election day 2009 as a mixed bag, with the highs of Kalamazoo's anti-discrimination proposition and Washington State's affirmation of R71, the small but significant gains in local races by openly gal/open ally pols, and the awful empty feeling of watching mob rule win again, this time in Maine, it's always the first inclination to place the blame at someone's door. The fact is that Protect Maine Equality/No On 1 did everything right, had a voter base they thought could be swayed by making gay families visible, straight allies present, and putting boots on the ground.
And it didn't work. I think overall, Maine may just not have been winnable, because we understimate the power of cultural intransigence in accepting civil equality when it comes to LGBTs and marriage.
What we all have to do is take a look in the mirror to see what needs to happen to change this -- come out of the closet, live out of the closet, be who you are - a neighbor, co-worker and friend claiming your personal equality as their peer, and to be willing to be sacrifice the comfort of the closet rather than point fingers at gay orgs, the President, Congress, the voting homophobes. As long as our numbers remain artificially small because of that closet, we will fail.
And even then, our numbers will not be significant -- we need allies to be out, proud and our open advocates. We need allies to be out, proud and our open advocates. There were many there in Maine and Washington, but they are a committed slice of people; hundreds of thousands of voters who felt the same way, failed to "come out" as visible allies; they were content that their vote was enough. One lesson is that LGBTs and allies must be visible, particularly to their lawmakers, at every level. As I've asked many times on the Blend, why is it we can draw thousands to a Pride Day, but only muster 200 to lobby their lawmakers face-to-face. Our priorities are screwed.
At Down With Tyranny, Howie Klein features these words from Doug Kahn: A question for all the people in Maine (and in the 30 other elections) who rejected equality for LGBT people. What in flipping hell is wrong with you straight people? And what's wrong with you, all you straight people who won't speak up against the inhumanity of other straight people, you who let pass all the hate speech in day-to-day life?
...I hope your grandchildren read about this in school, come home and ask, with an attitude of disbelief, what you did about the injustice. You did something, didn't you grandma, grandpa? Your well-deserved destiny is the shame and disgust that comes from your loved ones.  These are harsh words for my taste, but I feel the same way, tempered by a need to frame it as a jumping off point for an actual solution. It's an honest question -- why are the these allies silent, how do they differ from those who have made the commitment to full civil equality? A discussion about why it's so hard to be more assertive as advocates to me is a worthwhile topic to work through.
Without all of our allies out of the closet -- those in elected positions, those with access, and those whose voices are forces to be reckoned with, we'll continue to see the unthinkable -- unconstitutional mob rule over the civil rights of a minority group.
Really, some allies may simply following the President's lead -- he was so uninterested in what was going on that he claimed not to watch the election returns. With civil rights on the ballot. What does that tell you about commitment, if you're a potential ally thinking "what can I do to help?" if the POTUS is so casual about the outcome.
But the fact is that we must not only gaze in the mirror and assess what we can each do personally to advance equality -- the gAyTM needs to close to stop the enabling. Unfortunately it seems to be one of the only ways to signal there's a problem with the lack of support from purported political allies and organizations. This isn't about prioritizing civil rights over health care, the environment, or any other issue that has been sitting on the back burner for eight years. The question that must be by allies is "are civil rights (when it comes to LGBTs) relegated to the bottom of the pile? If not, how far down?"
We're definitely not on the same page, that's for sure. Otherwise we wouldn't hear the variations on "just wait until ___ occurs (midterm elections, Obama's [presumed] re-election, pick some BS of the day), we'll come back for you." That's counter-productive action in the name of "strategy" that hurts civil equality progress rather than helps. You have to wonder whether the word "ally" (or "fierce advocate") need a redefinition.
Thank you to the allies who do speak up and work hard for equality -- your commitment means everything. |
