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jlhSo this is the thing about me, that a lot of my close friends have noticed: I really, really hate groupthink. Get a lot of people talking about soemthing in a certain way, or thinking about something in a certain way, and I tend to edge away from whatever they're pointing at. It makes me nervous. But at this point, I'm beginning to feel like half my flist is going to think I'm a closet homophobe or something if I don't dutifully post 1000 words of outrage about Prop 8 in California, and that makes me feel ... unsettled. Because yeah, I'm outraged. And yeah, when I watched Keith's Special Comment last night--live, on MSNBC, borrowing ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ali_wildgoose's cable--I thought he was on top of his game. But I'm neither going to link to it, nor be bullied into linking to it, because I reckon you can find it on your own.
Now, I know that CA is a really huge state, and that they were already doing marriage there, and bellweather, and etc. And two years ago, some will know that I was pretty furious that there was piles of outrage on my flist about Texas gay rights, and not one mention that gay rights had passed in Maine. So I'm going to talk about Maine, and how excited I am about what's been happening there, and how that can lead us to a brighter future, and maybe what happened in Maine can be replicated, because you know, I'm just not interested in posting about my outrage. I'm interested in taking that energy and using it to move the process forward. And like two years ago, you're going to see "small random state I don't care about and can't put into my stereotypical red/blue dumb/smart concept of American voters" and skip the entry. But hey, at least I tried, right?
When I was first voting in the late 80s, I was in college and voting absentee back in Maine. I would get the voter's guide from the Maine Sunday Telegram so I could be smart about my vote even though I was living in Cambridge, MA. I remember that one column I was particularly interested in was gay rights, and I was disappointed to see that in '88, even the Maine Democrats were often anti-gay rights. That Thanksgiving, there was quite the debate around the dinner table as I tried to explain to my brother-in-law that no, gay rights weren't "special rights", but would mean that my uncle couldn't get kicked out of his apartment just for being gay. You know, stuff like that.
My last absentee vote in Maine was in the 1992 election. I moved to New York in 1993, was no longer in school, and changed my registration. But I still kept an eye on the growing gay rights movement in Maine. Various bills came up, and the vote was pretty mixed--passed in Portland, but failed in other towns, and still failing in the state as a whole. It was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, mostly because Maine is a heavily Catholic state.
And then, in 2006, miracle of miracles! A gay rights law finally passed in the Maine Legislature! And that November, the excellent voters of Maine defeated a referendum to repeal the law, 57/43! And even better, just this spring, an anti-gay rights group trying to put forth another initiative to not only repeal the gay rights law but also put in blocks to possible gay marriage admitted defeat and pulled the plug!
After years of trying, and vigilance after the act was passed, EqualityMaine (to whom I've given money in the past) finally won the day. Dear reader, I cried, back in 2006 when I learned that my beloved home had passed this law after so many years of working and hoping.
So what's the net net? Change comes, with a lot of work, but not without a lot of setbacks. I was disappointed again and again, but eventually Maine came through. I'm pretty open and unrepentant about my love for the ol' Pine Tree State--heck, most of the reason I can't imagine not being an American is because I can't imagine not being a Mainer--and when they finally did me proud, it was a real occasion for celebration. I'm still disappointed in my LJ friends that I had to do that celebrating alone.
And here we are facing defeat in California. Protest marches are important (and by the way, back in the day the entire point of the protest march was to "fill the jails" so I'm not sure why everyone is so OMG THEY ARRESTED US FOR BLOCKING THE INTERSECTION because, duh) and raising money is hugely important as is chasing the trail of the money on the other side (yes, Mormon Church trying desperately to get in good with the evangelicals, I'm looking at you, but sorry, no matter how much money you throw against the gays they're still going to think you're a creepy cult) and spending your own money accordingly.
But remember that the Obama victory and the Prop 8 passage aren't necessarily contradictory. Both the black churches and the Catholic church are against gay rights, unfortunately, and that's a lot of the religious base of American ethnic minorities. (Heck, most of the Anglicans who are all up in arms about gay bishops in the church are from Africa.) I'm not saying that we should settle for whatever Obama decides to throw at us, but I also don't think that he should spend all his political capital up front--remember what happened when Clinton tried to challenge the military about gays?
And I'll say it out loud: I don't think the modern civil rights movement is a good parallel at all, especially since the gay rights movement has huge strengths that the civil rights movement didn't have, namely, the existence of PFLAG. The idea that hey, you got your president, so can I get some stuff? is understandable but hugely problematic. Civil rights are a public good. Obama has already shown an ability to put those rights in a way that people who might think they are against them--people like my brother-in-law--can understand.
Let's keep working. Let's hold Obama and his inclusion of gays in his speeches to an inclusion of gays in his administration and in his programs. Let's keep raising money. But let's also stay open to new ways of thinking about the issue that can move us out of the stalemate. After all, a lot of people thought Howard Dean's 50 state strategy was absurd and wasteful, but it won the Democrats the Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008. There might be a way out of this that we can't even see right now. If you'd asked me in 1998 if I thought Maine would pass gay rights, I would not have been optimistic. I was wrong.
Let's keep looking.
ali_wildgoose's cable--I thought he was on top of his game. But I'm neither going to link to it, nor be bullied into linking to it, because I reckon you can find it on your own.Now, I know that CA is a really huge state, and that they were already doing marriage there, and bellweather, and etc. And two years ago, some will know that I was pretty furious that there was piles of outrage on my flist about Texas gay rights, and not one mention that gay rights had passed in Maine. So I'm going to talk about Maine, and how excited I am about what's been happening there, and how that can lead us to a brighter future, and maybe what happened in Maine can be replicated, because you know, I'm just not interested in posting about my outrage. I'm interested in taking that energy and using it to move the process forward. And like two years ago, you're going to see "small random state I don't care about and can't put into my stereotypical red/blue dumb/smart concept of American voters" and skip the entry. But hey, at least I tried, right?
When I was first voting in the late 80s, I was in college and voting absentee back in Maine. I would get the voter's guide from the Maine Sunday Telegram so I could be smart about my vote even though I was living in Cambridge, MA. I remember that one column I was particularly interested in was gay rights, and I was disappointed to see that in '88, even the Maine Democrats were often anti-gay rights. That Thanksgiving, there was quite the debate around the dinner table as I tried to explain to my brother-in-law that no, gay rights weren't "special rights", but would mean that my uncle couldn't get kicked out of his apartment just for being gay. You know, stuff like that.
My last absentee vote in Maine was in the 1992 election. I moved to New York in 1993, was no longer in school, and changed my registration. But I still kept an eye on the growing gay rights movement in Maine. Various bills came up, and the vote was pretty mixed--passed in Portland, but failed in other towns, and still failing in the state as a whole. It was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, mostly because Maine is a heavily Catholic state.
And then, in 2006, miracle of miracles! A gay rights law finally passed in the Maine Legislature! And that November, the excellent voters of Maine defeated a referendum to repeal the law, 57/43! And even better, just this spring, an anti-gay rights group trying to put forth another initiative to not only repeal the gay rights law but also put in blocks to possible gay marriage admitted defeat and pulled the plug!
After years of trying, and vigilance after the act was passed, EqualityMaine (to whom I've given money in the past) finally won the day. Dear reader, I cried, back in 2006 when I learned that my beloved home had passed this law after so many years of working and hoping.
So what's the net net? Change comes, with a lot of work, but not without a lot of setbacks. I was disappointed again and again, but eventually Maine came through. I'm pretty open and unrepentant about my love for the ol' Pine Tree State--heck, most of the reason I can't imagine not being an American is because I can't imagine not being a Mainer--and when they finally did me proud, it was a real occasion for celebration. I'm still disappointed in my LJ friends that I had to do that celebrating alone.
And here we are facing defeat in California. Protest marches are important (and by the way, back in the day the entire point of the protest march was to "fill the jails" so I'm not sure why everyone is so OMG THEY ARRESTED US FOR BLOCKING THE INTERSECTION because, duh) and raising money is hugely important as is chasing the trail of the money on the other side (yes, Mormon Church trying desperately to get in good with the evangelicals, I'm looking at you, but sorry, no matter how much money you throw against the gays they're still going to think you're a creepy cult) and spending your own money accordingly.
But remember that the Obama victory and the Prop 8 passage aren't necessarily contradictory. Both the black churches and the Catholic church are against gay rights, unfortunately, and that's a lot of the religious base of American ethnic minorities. (Heck, most of the Anglicans who are all up in arms about gay bishops in the church are from Africa.) I'm not saying that we should settle for whatever Obama decides to throw at us, but I also don't think that he should spend all his political capital up front--remember what happened when Clinton tried to challenge the military about gays?
And I'll say it out loud: I don't think the modern civil rights movement is a good parallel at all, especially since the gay rights movement has huge strengths that the civil rights movement didn't have, namely, the existence of PFLAG. The idea that hey, you got your president, so can I get some stuff? is understandable but hugely problematic. Civil rights are a public good. Obama has already shown an ability to put those rights in a way that people who might think they are against them--people like my brother-in-law--can understand.
Let's keep working. Let's hold Obama and his inclusion of gays in his speeches to an inclusion of gays in his administration and in his programs. Let's keep raising money. But let's also stay open to new ways of thinking about the issue that can move us out of the stalemate. After all, a lot of people thought Howard Dean's 50 state strategy was absurd and wasteful, but it won the Democrats the Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008. There might be a way out of this that we can't even see right now. If you'd asked me in 1998 if I thought Maine would pass gay rights, I would not have been optimistic. I was wrong.
Let's keep looking.
