Come on, Rogue!
While the American family and our extended international family were whooping it up for the historic Obama victory, I banged pans and wept for joy with the best of them. But I also had that dissociated, not-quite-part-of-feeling I had at family gatherings when I was young. Actually, I have never felt gayer.
Make no mistake. Election night 2008 was an amazing reparative night, a triumphant trifecta signaling the end of Nixon’s southern strategy, the Reagan Revolution and the Bush Regime. If Bush could have considered his first presidential selection and his second slim election as mandates, then we can certainly call the Obama victory a landslide.
It was a landside and it crushed us, as California, Arizona, Florida and Arkansas passed anti-gay ballot initiatives. It was a bittersweet night.
We learned three lessons.
First, progressive straight people do not, will not, see the moral equality of gay people. Except for the efforts of the ACLU, the rights of gay people are rarely championed by progressives. The moral sanctity of their marriage is inexplicably undermined by gay marriage. In the forty years since Stonewall we have achieved only a hollow, virtual equality. Like Sarah Palin, we too can be thrown under the bus.
Second, religion is the opposite of the people. While Black Churches certainly helped pass Prop Hate, the White Churches can not get off Dred Scott free. In an image-burnishing move, multi-wived Mormons poured millions into Prop Hate. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with its zero experience of marriage, contributed thousands. Democracy and religion are a bad mix.
Third, gay people cannot win if our own people do not care. If gay people remain partially or fully closeted, and do not openly support gay organizations which train those much maligned but highly effective “community organizers”, we will never win full equality. It has been forty years since the Stonewall Riots and we still do not think, yes, we can.
So excuse me, if I seem an ungracious party-pooper, quickly becoming more bitter than sweet. If gay people are not full American citizens, let’s stop paying taxes and re-invest in ourselves. It is past time for pro-active strategies, for our own ballot initiative to make divorce illegal and all divorced people disenfranchised felons. It is time for a general strike or a rainbow flu. Until further notice, all gay people should go rogue.
November 14, 2008 @ 12:28 am
Dear Kate,
I too felt bittersweet on election night as a resident of California and while I believe there is certainly more educating and reaching out to do, I have to take exception to some of your “lessons”.
As a Unitarian Universalist seminarian who worked as an interfaith organizer on the campaign, I have to tell you that I take issue with your statement that progressive straight people don’t see the equality of LGBT individuals and aren’t willing to work for their rights. I saw otherwise; all up and down the state. I worked with straight & queer people, both young and old, single and married and across political party lines and of multiple religious faiths on this campaign.
I don’t know about your faith tradition, but in mine, democracy (not to mention social justice action) is part of religion! Certainly the head of the LDS and Catholic churches (not to mention evangelical Christian) hold much blame for the lies that they persisted in telling here. Yet, to cast a blanket statement that indicts all Mormons, Catholics, African American faith communities or any one group as the sole reason for our defeat just fans the flames rather than finding individuals who are ready to dialogue or think differently. I met people on this campaign from each of those faiths and from all racial and ethnic backgrounds that voted “No” as well as those who continued on the path to take away rights.
Continuing to use the very old and outdated reference to multiple wives for mainstream Mormons is just beneath your level of wit. You can do better than this one. References to hate don’t help the cause. Yes, it may feel hateful (and trust me I’m angry), but that’s not how the other side sees themselves. How often have you gotten very far in convincing someone to your side by telling them they are hateful? We both can do better than that.
I wasn’t around for Stonewall; I’m only 37. Yet even in my lifetime, I have seen the progress. We got so much closer than we did in 2000, only 8 short years ago. I don’t know if you are still living in P-town, but here in CA, we were assuredly saying “Yes, we can”. And after licking our wounds and crying, we are back out there again, still working and still believing that “We will.” Maybe slightly slowed, but we will.
November 17, 2008 @ 11:47 am
Hi Kate,
I love the tone of this piece–you really capture how I am feeling right now, too.
On election night, I walked out into the streets of Brooklyn where horns were honking and people were cheering, and for a few minutes, I felt that I was finally part of the “hope” and the “change.”
But now I feel that not only am I not part of it (again), I am being actively excluded.
It’s not just prop 8, it is also Larry Summers. Why is this man still a respected part of the public life in this country after what he said about women?!
The only consolation for me is that gay marriage, which in the recent past seemed so far from our reach, now feels like a RIGHT that was taken away and we must win back again. That is was taken away enrages me, but that we had it for even six months was a great step forward.
Onward from here toward true, NATIONAL recognition of our equality and our unions.
(I hope Anthony Kennedy has a few gay friends and that they are working him hard on this issue. I have a feeling he will be the deciding vote on our equal rights sometime in the next few years.)
Best,
Kathleen