Thursday, November 6, 2008

Strike Beard!

Ok, one more and then we'll have to stop...

It's getting to be winter and Emerson and I have both decided to grow beards again. But I've decided to not just have a beard, but a strike beard. And here is why:



We can blame the ripping away of my marriage on the homophobic black community. Or we can blame it on deceitful Mormons (which has the added benefit of painting the black community as easily gullible and sheeplike in their blind obedience of propoganda). But a large part of the blame needs to go with the major gay rights organizations. In part it is because the strategy of ramming gay marriage through the courts is not working. We ultimately one twice but the backlash has landed us 0 for 30 in constitutional amendments. There is a saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The other reason the major gay rights organizations are to blame is their idiotic blind trust in the Democrats. If the HRC didn't spend so much money trying to get Barack Obama elected (and God knows he didn't need money), they might have been able to focus on state and local issues. So gay rights groups have gotten what they wanted; there are large majorities in both Houses of Congress and a president who deigned to mention us as part of a platitude in his acceptance speech (ohmigod! He talked about us! He talked about us!!!). The Democrats have complete control of the government. So let's see how long it takes the triumvirate of Obama, Pelosi and Reid to pass major pro-gay legislation. I'll take anything. A repeal of DADT. Repeal of DOMA. Passing ENDA. Anything.

But until then I won't shave my beard.

Because it wasn't just the evil Republicans who stole my marriage from me. In fact, an unprecedented 27% of self-identified gays voted for McCain. And it's time that the gay community woke up and started fighting for itself and stopped wishing that the magic Democrats will wave their wands and do shit for us after we get them elected.

4 comments:

Luis said...

I am with you on the democrat issue, and it pisses me off that gay people and organizations still behave like we are friends with the democratic party. If a real friend gave me that kind of support, I would have gotten rid of them a long time ago.

I refuse to see Obama as the great big hope until he does something for me, and I don't mean a $435 tax cut.

Anonymous said...

Michael. Great. Now we're into it. Problem solving, strategy, ideas...

So what's your proposed game plan, brother?

What you have proposed so far has a bit of an "underpants gnomish" quality to it.

Step 1: Grow beard.
Step 2: Convince gays to become republicans (is that it what you're proposing?)
Step 3: ??
Step 4: Marriage equality for all

I know you've thought deeply about this problem so I want to clearly understand the strategy you think would have the greatest likelihood of establishing marriage equality in the next 10 years.

If you do not yet have a general strategy in mind, what analytic process and framework do you propose to identify the best next steps.

Anonymous said...

By the way… I’m not proposing that you have to formulate and articulate your strategy today. I think this blog is a great place to develop a plan and invite your friends, family, interested web trawlers to critique and enhance your ideas.

When a movement goes down in a resounding defeat (like Nov. 4th), it indicates that the fundamental approach was flawed. You and Emerson probably have a better idea of what to do next than the existing “leadership” – because obviously they have no clue what they are doing.

AmyG said...

Is religion the elephant in this room? Exit poll stats at http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=CAI01p2
put the "protestant" and "catholic" Yes-on-8 votes at 65% and 64%. For people who go to church regularly, the Yes percentage jumps to the 80s. There doesn't seem to be any indication that black religious votes were out of line with white religious ones.

People who stated their religion as "none" voted 90% No, fwiw.