At a discouraging moment in the long brutal struggle to end Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, Jr. said in one of his most brilliant speeches, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it curves toward justice." On this day where all progressives mourn another close loss on whether gays and lesbians will have equal rights in this country, that speech gives me comfort not only because of it's eloquence but because history has shown it's truth.
This country has seen a lot of terrible things in our history - slavery, Jim Crow, the horrendous treatment of Native Americans, the long term discrimination against women, the ill-treatment of immigrants - but we have also made incredible progress and overcome many setbacks. What was incredibly controversial not very long ago is widely and comfortably held public opinion today. When King gave that speech 5 decades ago, he was one of the most controversial people in America. Today, he is a national icon with his birthday a national holiday.
To my friends in the LGBT community, I say this with confidence: your time is coming, and coming soon. History and demographics are on your side, and we are close to the tipping point. With more strongly pro-equality young people coming into the electorate every year, we will very soon start winning these ballot fights by narrow margins rather than losing them, and with each passing year we will start winning them with higher and higher percentages. 20 years from now, I believe that gay marriage will be as widely accepted as ending Jim Crow or having women work outside of home are today. You can hold your heads up with pride for having fought so hard now, because you are laying the groundwork for true equality soon- not soon enough, but it is on the way.
It is a terrible hurt for a majority of voters to say that discrimination is okay. But that bigotry is getting eroded every single day. Never give up, and never give in. Keep fighting that long good fight, because the arc of the moral universe curves toward justice, and it is curving your way soon.
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