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November 5, 2008
This Is My Post About The Election
I'm glad Barack Obama won. Now maybe when I travel overseas I won't get pelted with tomatoes anymore.
We volunteered in Virginia on election day. I knew the state was likely going in his favor when we showed up and were told that they had too many volunteers to do the usual poll greeting, knocking on doors or making phone calls. Instead they gave us some signs and told us to hold them over the 14th Street Bridge to passing cars heading to Virginia as a reminder to vote for the man.
So we found a spot near the bridge and did what we were told for about an hour. It was actually fun. The majority of people driving by honked their horns or gave us the thumbs up. We were only given the finger by fourteen friendly patriots (usually driving Range Rovers). Our volunteer gig ended when one not-so-friendly patriot pulled up to us in his park police cruiser and asked if we had a permit to be there. Kind of odd considering five other police cruisers drove by without showing interest.
I live on a street where one of the big celebrations occurred. Tos and Eric took several photos of the event. It was surreal. I've never seen so much jubilation and...happiness in DC before. And I've lived here for fifteen years. People were still honking their horns at 4:00 in the morning.
Here's a video from the street festivities:
It's bittersweet, though.
According to millions of friendly patriots, people like me were deemed unworthy of tying the knot with their partners in Florida, Arizona and California. And in Arkansas, we are not worthy of adopting children. Actually the ban on adoption applies to all unmarried couples. Maybe if you didn't keep banning marriage for us, we could rectify that, no? And if you are strongly anti-abortion, then wouldn't putting an unwanted child up for adoption to ANY loving home help your cause?
I find it ironic that the majority of minorities in California actually checked off the box that basically said "Yes, I would like to eliminate the right for these people to get married." Especially since interracial marriage was also once banned in this state not too long ago. Hmmm.
Ah, well. Same ole, same ole. Fear, ignorance and religious fundamentalism will continue to trump common decency and respect until more people speak up -- especially in churches.
I've never been much of an activist but it's hard not to take this shit personally. Just watch how homophobes react when they realize that they have just voided the marriages of thousands of couples.
Luckily I'm in no hurry to get married or adopt, but others are, and they deserve to have the option that the majority of couples in this country already enjoy. But when churches keep comparing us to murderers, pedophiles and donkey-fuckers, the task will remain daunting.
I realize that gay rights are not at the top of the priority list for most voters given the current circumstances facing our country. So the massive defeats we experienced on Tuesday should serve as a sobering reminder that we still have a long way to go. But I think setbacks can actually work in our favor. We become less complacent, more empowered, and wiser. It will happen someday. We've already made great strides in just a decade. Patience will serve us well.
A couple decades from now people will look back and wonder why so many spent a colossal amount of time and money trying to enshrine bigotry into a state's constitution. And those same people will ask where you stood on the issue during that time.
Regardless, I'm pleased that an intelligent critical-thinker won this election. He may not be perfect, but he's what we need right now. And it was nice to get a shout-out in this future president's speech. As always -- baby steps.
Posted by durban bud at November 5, 2008 9:56 PM
Comments
The only good thing about Prop 8 is that, as far as I am aware from the Constitution, ex post facto laws are illegal, so the existing same-sex marriages in Cali will be valid even if no more are allowed from now on. At least a few thousand will get to be almost kind of sort of full-ish-esque citizens for a while.
Posted by: Ron at November 6, 2008 11:04 AM
It has been a good reminder that we are not as far off as we thought we were. This may give the complacent "the word 'gay' doesn't define me..." younger gays something to think about.
I do worry about all of this messiah-ing of Obama. he's a person and is going to fuck up once in a while. We need to remember that, and that he has a tremendous amount of shit to fix.
That said, the gays need to start demanding our Democratic messiahs start giving us some results, and not just a lot of lip service. I appreciate the shout-out, but I'm gettin' tired of being kicked around by fucking Mormons.
Posted by: jimbo at November 6, 2008 11:12 AM
I am amazingly energized by obama's election but I agree with Jimbo, we need to let the guy screw up once in a while without crawling straight up his ass for every little mistake...he's human.
Jimbo is also right that we homos need to hold the DNC's feet to the fire and get something more than lip service. We've worked hard for them and been treated like doormats. For every two steps forward we've had a step and a half back. My darling Buckethead and I got married in SF in 2004. We were the second to last couple before the Cal. Supreme Court shut it down. We've come a ways but have FAR to go.
Posted by: Boomer at November 6, 2008 11:24 AM
Great article, Durban. Very well spoken.
Posted by: Doc at November 6, 2008 1:10 PM
It's so disappointing. Those fucking holier-than-thou Christians calling my lifestyle amoral. I mean, shit. You fuck ONE donkey...
Posted by: cb at November 6, 2008 2:39 PM
It's incredibly upsetting that these amendments passed. I often look to the USA as being quite progressive, if slightly conservative, but that is just plain fucked up. Not only does it remove the right to marriage for residents there but it sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the world. I guess it all comes back to the difference between tolerance and acceptance.
Here's to the second class!
Posted by: Kezza at November 6, 2008 4:31 PM
I too am sooo happy for Obama giving us a shout out, but so mad at the voters in those four states that did what they did. It will be a Supreme Court decision that will finally get us equal rights... and I think because of the CA vote this year, there will be a lawsuit of sorts and it will make it to the Supreme Court... lets hope Obama gets some good folks in there before it hits...
Posted by: Kelly Stern at November 6, 2008 7:21 PM
I'm a second class citizen in Arizona!! Woo-hoo!!! It inspired me to tell an anti-gay womanoid that she was a "fucking cunt." That made me feel a bit better.
Posted by: Homer at November 6, 2008 7:22 PM
sigh okay lets explain political calculus, if Obama's main supporters (the 90% black vote) are a larger bloc than the gay voting/supporters than he will not do anything to piss them off. That means no gay marriage, no repeal of DOMA and most likely no repeal of DADT. You can talk till your blue in the face but Howard Dean's actions for the last 4 years have clearly shown him indifferent to the gay vote. If you want action pay some middle road republicans to take up the case and start feeding them the same money you used to feed into the democratic party.
Posted by: Tim at November 7, 2008 10:26 AM
The times must be really hard in DC for you to be hoisting up a sign advertising your Escort Services. What is your slogan again? Oh right... "Got CHANGE? I'm Yours!" You cheap HO. ;)
Posted by: brettcajun at November 7, 2008 10:40 AM
Yeah it's so hard to fight irrational fear and dogmatic narrow-mindedness (i.e. organized religion) with reason and reality. Of course their arguments are contradictory and they seem to think that lying or gross distortion of facts is perfectly justified to get their pious message across.
But we just have to keep at it. We'll get there eventually.
Yay Obama!
Posted by: DanH at November 7, 2008 10:46 AM
Great post, TJ. Depressing as fucking hell. No Milk's latest post gave me the first bit of hope I've had all week. I hope it's a wake up and I hope this is all old news in a few years. If I had been alive during the 50's and 60's, I hope that I would have been on the front lines of the civil rights movement. This is my chance - I'm trying to be on the front lines locally this time around.
Posted by: Long Story Longer at November 8, 2008 10:07 PM
Another fine post.
My own feeling is that rights gained by the courts are too fragile to depend upon. Look at the battle on abortion---will it ever end? The 1973 Supreme Court ruling came before the country was ready for it. Same with Brown vs. Board of Education. Winning public support first is much harder, but ultimately more enduring.
So then, how might we win over enough straights to do this? Anger has its place, but persuasion rarely happens at high volume. We need multiple strategies to gain what we need. I'm not sure what they are right now, though.
Posted by: rangergeek at November 9, 2008 6:07 PM