I understand that it is the marriage issue that lit the spark to create this new LGBT movement. It is that basic civil right, to marry the one you love, that has brought so many new faces to the fight for LGBT equality. This is the silver-lining on the dark cloud that is proposition 8.
The fight for same-sex marriage is incredibly important work that must continue until we achieve full marriage equality in all 50 states. However, I am afraid that, with this new surge of LGBT activism focused so intensely on marriage equality, we are trying the build the house before we have laid the foundation.
Today, in 2008, we, as LGBT people, can still be fired from our jobs and evicted from our apartments in a majority of the United States simply because we are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. The need for basic civil rights, such as a bill protecting LGBT people from employment and housing discrimination, must be a top priority of our new civil rights movement. We must be careful not to focus our efforts solely on marriage equality. Marriage is incredibly important, and a fight worth fighting, but unless we are secure in our jobs and our housing, the right to marry does little for our community.
I am not saying that we should not fight for same-sex marriage. I worked at MassEquality for years, defending same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. When our families are being attacked and anti-gay marriage amendments are knocking on our doors, we must fight back. We cannot let anymore anti-gay marriage amendments pass in this country. Enough is enough.
However, now that we are on the offensive, and I seriously do believe that on November 4th the LGBT community moved from a defensive position to an offensive position, we need make sure our focus in on the basic civil rights that our community still has yet to achieve.
We must keep our eye on the big picture. We cannot focus solely on marriage equality. We are a talented community and we know how to multitask. We must fight for full equality for LGBT people:
Employment and housing non-discrimination legislation that protects all LGBT people (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.)
Hate-crimes legislation that protects all LGBT people
The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Funding for LGBT youth, seniors, HIV/AIDS
Inclusion of LGBT issues in school curriculum (health class, history, English)
Full marriage equality in all 50 states
Equal adoption rights for same-sex couples
This is our time. This is our fight for full equality for LGBT people.
But I have to say that I subscribe to the Barney Frank school of thought on this one: it’s not about a rally, it’s about the politics.
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p>The Prop 8 rallys across the country were lovely but no tangible progress was made!
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p>SOoooooo many gay people are wasting some new level of interest in LGBT issues by bitching about Rick Warren. Waste of time, and like the rallys nothing comes out of it (except for your very clever fundraising thing for your very excellent cause!
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p>HRC embarrassed itself with this letter to Obama asking for him to appoint a second person as Sec. of Labor over the first one.
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p>Chris, as usual I agree with your post but we need to focus on both smart activism about issues that matter that you’ve listed above AND not getting in a tizzy every time something little and insignificant happens.
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p>Again, I agree with Frank:
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that people who are participating in rallies and putting the pressure on Obama because of Warren are only doing those things. I think that is a foolish assumption, but I hope our enemies are underestimating us as much as some of our friends are.
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p>You can poo poo the rallies and Warren anger all you want, but they are having a positive effect. At the least, they have Warren on the defensive, as evidenced by his staging a photo op with a Real Gay Man(TM), publicly lying about the evil things he’s said about gay people in an attempt to cover himself, and reworking his website. Hater Number One is on the run, and the average citizen now knows without a doubt that it is not acceptable to vilify gays, and it is not ok to shit on gay people after currying their vote. And the true allies are coming out in droves.
somehow my unfinished draft got posted.
caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet i guess, lol!
…but you seem to be quantifying progress through a thoughts/feelings & hugs/kisses measurement as opposed to rights and benefits.
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p>I’m not sure that having one bigot slightly alter his rhetoric is progress for the gay community, nor do I think the HUGE amount of effort that has enraged the gay/allied community around Warren should claim victory when someone simply softens his or her tone.
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p>That said, I disagree that my assumption is foolish. I do believe (a you vs. me with no evidence either way type of disagreement) that the vast majority of LGBT folks and allies feel like attending a rally is about the right level of activism on gay issues that they can manage in their busy lives. I have gay and straight friends who went to the Prop 8 rally at Gov Center who haven’t done anything to help the cause since and probably wont until the next rally. Now, I’m glad they went. I think it’s great to show support. But rallies are not progress.
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p>Another quote from that Barney article that I think many, especially the constant “reflex-rallyers” in the gay movement forget:
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on both practical matters and the less tangible, but ever important matters.
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p>First,
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p>Warren isn’t just “one” bigot, he’s one of the most prominent in the country at this point. Now for the less tangible: If we somehow win the battle, that’s a major victory and shows just how powerful our movement has become – something that won’t be forgotten when it comes time to address ENDA, DOMA and DADT. Heck, just showing that Obama can’t pay us lip service and think that’s good enough is a victory. We’ve done that already – they won’t be pulling another Warren-type decision for a very, very long time. I’d put money on that.
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p>If congress understands there will be hell to pay because of this Warren fiasco for not achieving major progress for us this year, that we’ll scream bloody murder and march on their streets, then this was a battle well worth fighting. We don’t even have to win against Warren, just show that we can seriously shake the foundation. It has to be perceived as being more troublesome to push our rights aside and deal with the consequences than it is to pass our civil rights bills and deal with angry evangelicals that won’t vote for democrats anyway. That’s all we need to get our bills passed. It’s difficult to tabulate that kind of power, it’s a very soft kind of power, but showing our anger over Warren could be a part of that puzzle.
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p>BTW – I still think it’s a 50-50 proposition that Warren ends up doing the invocation. Don’t forget that Wright was initially scheduled to perform the invocation in Chicago when Obama first announced his presidency… Axelrod cut him the day of or the day before the actual speech! This thing ain’t over till it’s over. The only way we lose is if we roll over and die, showing that we’re willing to roll over and die on stuff that’s really important – like if we should be able to be fired simply for being gay.
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p>You know, that’s half the battle? Just getting them to care? I guarantee you the consequences of this are enormous and incalculable. First, your friends probably talked about the rally to others, who talked about them to others. That kind of water-cooler, grassroots discussion is imperative. Maybe they outed themselves to someone in the process? Maybe they had that discussion with someone who wasn’t knowledgeable of glbt issues at their work, or brought a friend to that next rally who became hyber involved?
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p>Maybe they signed up for an email list? Or the Facebook group? Sure, it was just a rally one Saturday morning… not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. But that rally on a Saturday morning could become a night of volunteering to do phone banking for a pro-glbt candidate during special election at some point next year? Once these people are on the email lists and facebook groups, it’s easier to get them involved in the future.
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p>In terms of the actual rallies – they weren’t just play or excitement or anything of the like… they were anger. That’s what made those rallies, that took place all over the country, much more important than any rallies – save a few – that have happened in decades. The only rallies I can think of that had the same kind of authenticity and importance over the past few years were the pro-immigration rights rallies a few years back. Those rallies mattered, scared the bejeezes out of some people and made others realize how important their rights were. They helped cement the latino community within the Democratic camp – a community with which we would not win any elections without.
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p>The anti-h8 rallies after the loss in California had an IMMEDIATE effect: around 10% of people who voted for Prop 8 said the protests after Prop 8 made them regret their vote; that they would have switched it if they could. That 10% would have reversed the actual result, resulting in Prop 8’s defeat by several percentage points. People aren’t going to care about us until they realize how vital these rights are to us – until we get in their face about it: angry protests are one way of showing it.
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p>It’s not the be-all, end-all. But what else were we supposed to do after Prop 8 passed? Phone bank? Go back in the closet? The damage was done, we needed to vent and show we were freaking pissed off. This Warren business is just the first opportunity we have had to flex our muscles after 8’s failure – and if it results in anything, be it Warren’s rejection or at least a more serious attitude about GLBT rights within Obama’s administration – then it’s well worth it. In the meantime, rest assured, people are working on DOMA, DADT and ENDA… and we’re NOT going to stand for any of them to be pushed aside. The same people who showed up at the rallies will show up for DOMA, DADT and ENDA. The “No more Mr. Nice Gay” at all those rallies signs are right – a beast has been awoken. We’re angry, we want results… the days of people just showing up at parade’s are over.
I don’t see it as an either-or thing. I never understand this mindset that seems to say we can only work on one matter of civil equality at a time. Of course ENDA is vital to everyone, and we will continue to push it. Along with marriage equality, repeal DOMA & DADT, anti-hate crimes legislation, etc. What we need is a CIVIL EQUALITY OMNIBUS BILL. No more of this farting around with one at a time, bills forever dying in committee. Obama the Fierce needs to slap down an omnibus bill and be the fierce advocate he says he is.
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p>I think people from MA need to be careful of creating an image for themselves of “we have marriage, so now it’s time to move on to other issues.” I know this is not intended, but beware that your message may be interpreted that way. Those of us in the hater states still want and need it all, so there will be no backing off of marriage equality coming from my corner.
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p>An item to add to the omnibus bill: Uniting American Families Act. Obama famously said he supported the bill in theory, but in reality he trashed without ever proposing a fix that would address his concerns. Americans with non-citizen spouses shouldn’t have to choose between their country and their spouse. We need UAFA to pass so that all married/partnered Americans can sponsor their non-American spouse for permanent residency or citizenship. Right now, that is a special right given only to heterosexuals.
The immigration authorities routinely investigate married couples to try to verify that they are “bona fide” marriages. Even if they are legally licensed and officiated, they aren’t bona fide unless the couple is having sex and reserving their procreative potential for each other (of course the authorities have to use other measures to make their judgement about that, but that’s what bona fide marriages are). If they seem to be looking to have sex and someday have children with people other than each other, that’s not a bona fide marriage.
so that we “know” where that booty’s been. that’s the office you work in, isn’t it John? The Sniffing Up Skirts Division of the Department of Intrusive Affairs. Have you installed the smell-o-rama sensors yet?
They mainly just interview the couple separately and try to determine if it is a sham marriage. It is a big problem. That is why Obama has some qualms about that act, because it would make shams even easier to perpetrate and harder to investigate. I don’t think we should give permanent residence or citizenship to spouses unless they become parents together.
I completely agree that protests and rallies don’t create real change. But they are also incredibly important for the movement. At the big protest on City Hall we collected 2000 signatures in favor of the MA transgender civil rights bill. Those signatures / postcards will be delivered to legislators when the bill is nearing a vote.
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p>But the real reason for protests are 1) visibility to show the general population that we are being treated unfairly and 2) to bring our people together to get riled up and find out how to take action.
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p>Like I said, at the Nov 15th protest, we had people signing postcards. We also plugged the website: http://www.jointheimpactMA.com so that people knew where to go to take further action.
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p>A protest is only as good as the actions that follow it. I wish that your friends, gay and straight, that went to the Prop 8 protest would have been fired up by the crowd and the speakers and would have gone to the website to find out how to call their legislators or write a letter to the editor or at least have signed up for email update so they would get directions on how to take action next time something comes up. In fact, a lot of people who were at the Prop 8 rally did go to the website that night and the next day. We had many new people sign up for email alerts. We can now use that email list to let people know when ENDA, DADT, DOMA or any other bills are coming up for a vote. We can give people their reps phone numbers and ask them to call to push the bill through. That is how protests can be used to create real change. The protests MUST drive people to take further action.
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p>I hope by post doesn’t sound like now that we have marriage in MA, we should focus on other issue. That is definitely not what I mean. What I have been hearing for years from people in states without same-sex marriage and without employment and housing non-discrimination laws is that they don’t want us focusing on marriage while they can still be fired for being gay. At the Creating Change, a conference of 2000+ LGBT activists from all over the country, in 2004, people were not thrilled that I was from Massachusetts. They were angry that all the attention was on marriage when, in most states, they could still be fired for being gay.
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p>Of course we can still fight for marriage in all 50 states, but we have limited resources (money and “man” power) and we need to make sure we are focusing on a broader range of issues to protect everyone in the community.
All of these protests that have resulted from h8’s passage are different than normal protests. It’s not the annual ‘let’s march on dc’ protest, or the ‘let’s go to time square and protest for a day because, well, isn’t that what good citizens do?’ kind of protest.
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p>Our community has a genuine grievance. The voters of our largest state said that our relationships are a sham and we don’t deserve equal rights. We were pissed and we freaking went to the streets and had the necessary vent.
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p>They say there’s a number of steps people deal with when they experience a loss. Those protests were our angry/frustrated phase as a community. The anger and the frustration hasn’t gone away, it’s being channeled. People are ready to do more. That’s why I suspect the Warren thing blew up to the degree that it did: it was our first opportunity, as a community, to actually do something, anything, to show that we’re here and can’t be ignored or brushed aside and that those who view us at second class criticizes cannot be tolerated by those who claim to be our allies, because we freaking demand it. It’s no longer good enough for a politician to say they support equality, they damn well better show it. That’s the new bar we’ve set by pushing against Warren.
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p>In fact, I think it’s impossible to say that we’re both – as a community – only going to rallies and then to say, “well, we shouldn’t have committed all this action on Warren.” The very fact that we’ve been so loud and efficient on Warren shows that our anger and demands for equal rights have never been such an effective force for change before. This new movement is not only different than what we had before, but it’s going to be much more powerful and leave the old guard in its wake if it can’t keep up and find a way to actually help for a change. I honestly can’t wait to see the first major GLBT rights bill come up. I’m quite sure that, at that moment, Migraine will realize the potency of this new, improved, Stonewall 2.0 GLBT rights movement that’s been created and won’t be stopped. We’re itching for that fight and we won’t lose.
…to measure the progress of gay activism in Obamanaion with the exception of the hugs/kisses model that you and Laurel are using. I have a few main thoughts:
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p>1. Rallys are a feel-good waste of time, but sometimes I elect to attend a rally so that I can feel better and/or waste some time.
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p>I mean, sure, some people are signed up to volunteer at a rally. I think we all know better than to assume that most of those people haven’t been active before, and it’s THIS rally that has made them care about LGBT issues. And let’s be honest, if you come to the rally on Boston Common, there’s just a larger chance that you’re legislators (since you’re local) support nondiscrimination for trans folks. I’m not sure a few more postcards filled out in a way that isn’t targeted is a very good way to spend time.
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p>2. Wasting time getting upset about Warren is also a waste of some of the LGBT political goodwill that has been building for years. Will we get it back? Sure. Will this knock the whole movement off track? I hope not.
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p>I do think that there is only one measure that can be used to measure the LGBT community’s success in it’s whining over Warren, and that’s whether he gives invocation or not. You say:
and I think that frankly, moving one person to a 50/50 shot (that I don’t actually even agree with exists, I think he’ll do it) of doing a couple minute invocation is not real progress.
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p>I’m hoping the “Stonewall 2.0” generation is eventually going to raise expectations from what you outline as potential success now. Clearly, this whole Warren issue will soon be over and after he speaks the LGBT community will resigns itself to a small, mostly insignificant but totally self inflicted loss on an issue that didn’t matter, and begin to care about real important issues again.
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p>3. I’m not sure who this “old guard” you speak of that is going to be left “in its wake” if it can’t “keep up” and “actually help for a change.” Surely you’re not speaking of the Stonewall “1.0” generation who were largely responsible for the protections that do exist for LGBT folks not to mention the accepting and tolerant culture that exists for you and me today largely because of what they went through.
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p>One of my concerns is that this next generation that you speak of won’t do much more than scream and holler loudly every time someone who disagrees from them gets near a microphone. I think that strategy, though I’m sure it feels great, is less politically advantageous as you seem to.
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p>4. Ryan, you seem to be setting the bar for progress very low:
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p>To me, all Obama has to do is attend an event with one other person who is vocally anti-equality and share a microphone or a stage and we have certifiably not “shown” Obama that he “can’t pay us lip service.” So, even though this low bar is good enough for victory in your book, I doubt that bar can even be met! And BTW, I’ll take that bet – Obama’s not scared because the loony left is upset about stage sharing, I bet we see all sorts of people we don’t like begin to be included in ceremonial ways.
when people have a grievance and want to vent, organize and coalesce. Not having a rally would snuff the rage and deepen the sense of hopelessness. So you’re dead wrong about these rallies and the Warren thing too. If you want to be a good ally, stop trying to hold back the tide. And if you think there is something better we should be doing, suggest it. I have seen not one positive alternative action that you’ve suggested. Frankly, you sound a lot like a concern troll.
and yes, you do sound like a concern troll.
about the Prop 8 rally. While it is true that most protests bring out people that are already active in the fight, the Nov 15th protest was different. Of course all the activists were there, but so where thousands of people that have never protested before. Old school gay activists told me that it was the largest LGBT related protest in DECADES. That is because tons of people who never protested before showed up.
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p>So many people spoke to me at the rally and afterwards saying that they have never been involved in the movement before, but they want to do something now. People are STILL asking me what they can do to help. That is amazing! Granted that is not the response from your typical rally, but it IS the response from the recent prop 8 rally.
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p>AND they showed up from ALL over the state, not just from the pro-LGBT Boston area. The postcards that were signed were collected from people that live all over the state, so indeed they actually will be quite useful when the trans-bill comes to a vote. AND we now have all of those people’s email and can ask them to take further action when we need to mobilize the community.
Avalanche of postcards, many new activists, lots of incensed people asking for the first time “what else can I do?”. “Jackpot” was my word for the day.
by having a rally, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have other, effective means of advocacy. If all the movement’s doing is doing rallies, then, yeah, that’s not going to be very effective… but that’s only a tiny slice of what’s going on here. Protests in the past have been very effective, from getting this country out of Vietnam to the Southern Freedom Movement. People remember the hoses and the dogs sicked on people marching during the Southern Freedom Movement, but those rallies and marches were only a tiny slice of what went on. People needed to see it, so they served their purpose, but you’re forgetting the thousands of people who went door to door back then. The same thing is happening now, albiet in different ways, with different tools, but my point is that these rallies were only rallying cries, not the fundamental way we were trying to create change. That’s going to come in the form of citizen lobbying, phone calling as these campaigns gear up, and making sure we have as many allies – calling their elected leaers – as possible. Whether you’ll admit it or not, the 11 days of rallies were very effective: they recruited 10s of thousands of new people across this country to our movement, people who needed to vent and want to help, and they shed a light into the discrimination we face, for people who never truly realized it. Opinion polls in California already showed that the marches changed enough minds that h8 would not have passed had voters been given a second chance.
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p>You’re certainly right that it’s early to tell what’s going to happen, but the grassroots nature of these events proves that this 2.0 movement is going to be much more effective than what came before it. None of the old guard, the “leaders” of our movement, planned or executed these rallies – they were almost spontaneous, coming from people on the streets, at a local level, just as it should be. We don’t need 5 people at an HRC office in NYC making all the decisions for us; that’s lead to defeat after defeat for the past 20-30 years. We need Paul sending messages to 20,000 people on Facebook getting them to volunteer, we need Marc Solomon organizing citizen lobbying at DC offices and we need an angry freaking mass of people willing to be called into action in every single city and town across this country.
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p>For too long, the wrong people have been in charge of this movement, have been tepid of going too far and have been afraid of even showing gay people on TV or in commercials. The HRC types. The kind of people who think we have to hide away the gay to put ads on TV, or who think visibility events in San Francisco instead of door knocking all across California is the recipe for success. They’re loser strategies created by a bunch of people who don’t know what the heck they’re doing, but man they get along so well with the dems. I’m so glad they never like to make waves, because it’s been so effective in the past. No thanks.
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p>We need two things right now as a movement: making sure we have a huge base of supporters and members willing to do what’s necessary – and frequently making use of them – and strong leadership, with proven winners leading specific aspects (ie citizen lobbying), as well as local talent willing to lead the field locally, gain new volunteers and getting them to do work. You’re right – protests and marches are only going to be a small part of the puzzle, but if we’re wronged in a big way, such as after h8 passed, then people are going to take to the streets and the populace needs to see that. But that’s only a tiny supplement to our overall efforts – usually happening as a result of something serious that happens, acting as events we can take advantage of to channel our volunteer base, tell them what they can do to help more and to sign them up to do it.
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p>You may scoff at my ‘bar’ or at the ‘2.0’ etc. But the reality is that there’s more effective means to accomplish things and many of the old leaders of our movement (and I’m not talking about age, just most of those who have led us for the past 10 years) not only haven’t used the more effective techniques, but they have often scoffed at them.
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p>But we’re going to quickly show that we are not a movement to be trifled with or double crossed. We’re going to do that whether or not there are some people uncomfortable with those tactics. They can be dragged along with us – from HRC to the Democratic leadership. They’re going to have to do what we vote them in for, because we’re going to make it much more miserable for them to not pass our bills, to not give us our rights, than to continue to brush us aside because they find it inconvenient to act on our behalf. As a movement, we need to be the bigger political headache than the people who hate us and don’t want us to have rights if we’re going to actually get our rights. That’s what the old guard doesn’t understand. Making polite doesn’t get us anywhere. We fight – hard – anytime there’s an opportunity and reason to do so; we give a pass to no one.