Obama Teaches the Gays
I never joined the first two parts of the gay movement, neither around Stonewall nor AIDS. I was too young for Stonewall and too closeted for AIDS. I watched friends and acquaintances organize, fight and often win, friends such as Howard Bragman (now a powerful publicist), Jeremy Bernard (now a key aide on the Obama team) and Torie Osborn (who created the bridge between lesbians and gay men in building the LA Gay and Lesbian Center in the 1980s).
Having worked pretty hard on the No on 8 side via Courage Campaign, I decided to forego the rally in West Hollywood tonight where the self-appointed leaders of the (failed) campaign would do what they do. I'd heard it all. But when a friend called me to say a large group was marching down Sunset Boulevard near my house toward the CNN building, I ran to join them. They made me feel alive and reconnected to a movement that had disappeared over the last fifteen years.
At first, we were maybe two thousand, walking in rag-tag down one of the busiest streets in the country, right through Hollywood. My friends Zach Shepard and Geoffrey Murry, two young lawyers who have never led a protest in their lives, had led this group away from the official speeches in West Hollywood, speeches Zach said he was bored of hearing. Zach was tired of being "talked to." He and his friends wanted to do something, to be part of something.
I'm not so used to these spontaneous things myself. In my twenties, I was a VP at Occidental Petroleum. We did not think spontaneous marches were such a good idea because they were usually spontaneously marching at us. But the energy tonight was infectious, a different sort of power from that exultant joy I experienced last night at the huge Century City party for Obama. This electricity was from the Zachs and the Geoffreys who had raised over $75,000 from small donors for the No on 8 campaign, but were never allowed to campaign. As Zach said, " I felt like a cog. Some guy called me after I volunteered, but he could not even tell me when my shift was." Zach never found out.
John Cloud wrote an interesting story in Time Magazine last week about the new gay mafia that is behind lots of the great changes that are going on in American politics. They are smart people who put up hundreds of millions of dollars to change politics and society from the bottom up, working county by county and state by state for equality for gay people. One of the gatekeepers for one of the rich donors is quoted as saying, "where is the outrage?" I think he means where is the outrage against being kept as second class citizens, wondering why the "movement" sits back and waits for billionaires to write checks. But can there be outrage when a movement becomes a corporation? When the largest LGBT organizations look like, are staffed by former executives of and are funded by huge corporations and huge donors, where is the movement?
It's not at black tie dinners. It's not at VIP receptions. It's not on the red carpet. Movements are visceral and popular, often born of outrage and even anger, like that which eventually made Barack Obama president-elect.
The campaign for No on 8 may not be over. Maybe, just maybe, more votes will be counted and we'll win. But in the likelihood that we don't, Zach and Geoffrey and the thousands of people who left a park in West Hollywood tonight tired of speeches, ready to work, ready to build and ready to lead, will be our way to victory.
The Mormon Church and its subsidiary allies brilliantly pumped in money and lies into a cynical campaign to strip rights from people via constitutional amendment. They ran a much better campaign than the No side. And they used their base to win. I talked with two candidates for office here in California today who said they lost because they were on our side. They saw the Mormon Church at work. They saw organizing of Latino and African American households. They saw passion and organization. Where were we?
Next time--and there will be a next time--we must believe in ourselves. That's one of the key messages of the Obama victory. Believe in the people. Empower the people. If you give them orders and you make them cogs, they'll write some checks, but they'll stay home. On election day, it felt good to wave at the people on the street holding No on 8 signs. But I saw no one, not one person, waving a Yes on Obama sign. Why? Because the Obama campaign focused like a laser beam on using California money and labor to win in other states. They had California in the bag. They did not waste people's time doing "visibility" in California.
Shocking as it may seem, we had West Hollywood in the bag. Imagine the thousands and thousands of people who could have called, spoken to five friends, walked and persuaded for the past four months. Imgaine what might have happened had we truly engaged our wonderful friends in the labor movement, such as Sal Rosselli. And then, if we had lost, we'd have a real movement. Now we have to build one from Zach and Geoffrey up. Maybe it's all for the best. As Barack Obama has shown, real victories do not come easy, but they do come from movements.
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Thank you Mr. Jacob. Its not the percentage of any particular group that is to blame. Thank you for not going down that path.
The gay community must be organized on a large scale to do the type of retail politiking that the Mormon Church did - even in communities of color.
The organizing must be there if a victory is the end result. Here'e hoping.
How, in this lovely country, is anyone able to get a proposition on a real ballot that limits the equality of any people? I wonder how Christian is it to screw with people that are not harming you in any way.
Hello, I am a straight man in Arizona. A couple of women from Texas sold me on the Idea of gay marriage. It was an easy sell. They explained to me how if one of them got sick, the other could be shutout by a narrow minded family member as well as a number of other issues.
What frightens the church going homophobic "good folks" is that if gay is okay I will have to worry about my husband, wife, kids, They still don't get that for the most part your either gay or your not. The christian right thinks that somehow homosexuals can put pods under your house and you wake up gay.
Does the Bible say that homosexuality is wrong? Possibly. It also says not to eat shellfish, not to have dairy with meat, not to work on the sabbath, not to eat pork and over 700 other things that we should not do. Oh, and don't forget to sacrifice a goat every now and then, actually 10% of your goats. I do not see anyone with signs protesting Jimmy Dean, Red Lobster, or the cheeseburger. They did not mind changing the sabbath from Friday at sundown through Saturday at sundown to Sunday. So THINGS DO CHANGE!! .
As for my wife and I, we both shed a few tears when we saw George Takei getting married to the love of his life. I grew up watching him as Sulu and I loved seeing him so happy.
Ca. Pop:
59.8% White
35.9% Hispanic
12.3% Asian
6.2% Black
A distinctly smaller % of educated blacks in Ca. & at least 1/3 of black adults have lost their right to vote. Factor this into a well-strategised if dishonest campaign, flawed polling and one would be hard pressed to blame this on blacks at all.
It is intellectually and emotionally dishonest and unfair!
I've read such awful things some even projecting their resentment on Obama; I sense disdain and much condescension even as they continue to express their "shock & disappointment" at the perceived "betrayal".
Face it, proponents of No on 8 did a horrid job. Ads were weak and not terribly compelling in the face of very misleading and sadly powerful messages from the other side. Too much was taken for granted and unlike the Obama campaign, very little grassroots work was done to convey, convince or convert -
I've read comments ranging from boycotting Obama to threats to all things black - What a shame! The battle has just begun and yet much energy is being expended on misdirected anger with little reserved for the real culprits: The Mormon/Catholic church etc.
A.P was the source of this 'poll'. I've grown immensely distrustful of them since their biases were exposed and I seriously question their motives at this time.
I'm terribly suspicious and rightfully so.
Incidentally: gay & black are these mutually exclusive?
To expound: It is irrational for the gay community to be hostile towards Obama and blacks on account that Prop 8 was passed, when it was the black community who stood by the gay community in the 1970s to support their right to equal employment and housing. The black community has ALWAYS welcome gays in our communities and churches b/c we have gay family members who are loved! Hwoever, to ask someone to vote for abortion or vote for gay marriage when it is against their religous beliefs, is wrong. Remember, religious freedom?
The black vote DIDN'T grant Obama the Presidency nor passed Prop 8, the white vote did.
Although there were laws prohibiting blacks/whites from marrying, the law was ignored & many wed in other states/countries. Today, Gays can marry non-legally, have palimony rights to medical benefits, Power of Attorney, and be Designated Beneficiary. So, what's the real intent of gay marriage? It's Social Security Benefits to the Surviviing Spouse. By allowing gay marriages, any and all types of people would claim to be married to beat or gain from the system and opening a flood-gate of SSB abuse, not necessarily by gays, but those who want to beat the systems. Our system is on the verge of collapse, and it just can't afford it.
Finally, it is an insult to African-Americans for gays to compare their bedroom rights to basic human rights of a man with a different skin color.
That's some nasty stuff there, PoliSci2008. If you don't want gay blaming blacks, you had best remain silent.
No one has been asked to vote for abortion or for gay marriage. They have been asked to vote for recognizing the rights of their fellow citizens.
But let me ask you - from your comments, it could be assumed that you would be just fine with it if the anti-miscegenation laws had been allowed to stand, as long as interracial couples could get Social Security. Is that right? And the only reason you got married (or would get married) is to get those benefits, right?
After all, there's no real reason that two people would want to get married.
If I could make a suggestion, maybe the gay-lesbian movement needs another strategy. It's a given that there are some irrational fears out there that won't go away for a while. So, why waste your vital juices? The movement should focus on desecularizing marriage. Eliminate unnecessary regulation of the union of two individuals. Liberate the libertarian in all of us. Then get as many religious people as possible to sign up for the notion that marriage is a religious institution and government has no place in it. In the meantime, the two individuals who want to get married can enter into a civil contract. Heck, if you want to add a church wedding to it, there are certainly a bunch of churches out there who'd welcome you.
In all probability, the courts will hold Prop 8 to be prospective only. There are now 36,000 married, gay individuals in CA. Like it or not, those 36,000 have been enlisted as role models for gay marriage and catalysts for change. Particularly if they are black or Hispanic, they need to be making videos of their lives (showing their houses, kids, extended family, pets, schools, places of work, etc.) and speaking at black and Hispanic churches and community groups.
If the gay community and its many straight friends organize a smart, vigorous grassroots campaign, this injustice will shortly be reversed. As Obama's transcendent victory shows, the arc of history truly does bend towards progress.
In case it matters: I am straight. I wish I lived in California, because I would have jumped up to join the protests there.
It infuriates and saddens me that there are so many people who are gullible to the religious wrong's prejudices (worded as if they're reasonable). In case the "destruction of marriages" argument resonates with anyone reading this, the gay couple down the street has NOT AFFECTED MY MARRIAGE one iota!
People are people. We're all human beings (even the religious wrong). Doesn't matter the country of our birth, the color of our skin, the religion we practice, or the gender of our love. Evolve, folks!
i couldn't agree more. This needs to turn into a full-blown civil rights movement in the streets. Shut down the 101 -- who is with me?
I'm in!!!!
If not for the huge black turnout for Obama the measure would have failed. I have a hard time celebrating the victory over discrimination for people who support discrimination against me.
Do you really want to go there with that simplistic thinking? Black folks are solely responsible for the passage of prop 8? Really?
I am an African American lesbian who is extremely disappointed with prop 8's passage and the high numbers of people of color who voted for it here in CA. And, I'll tell you something.
Jacobs has hit the nail on the head. The same brilliant grassroots, foot soldier campaign that was waged to ensure an Obama victory needs to be ramped up to crush this hateful legislation.
Obama canvassed really hard for every single one of those votes over 21 months...h
He strove to address and allay any niggling concerns/doubts these voters had about him & even then he still faced an uphill battle and continues to with what remains a delicate mandate from many still willing to take away their support at the drop of a hat (read through the comments and see how many are quick to project the perceived sins of black people on him)-
Where was the campaign against proposition 8...? I've read more sound arguments here that could have easily translated to compelling arguments for support at grassroot levels-
Next time something is this important, treat it like it is!
And try as you may, it's almost impossible to buy into this idea from a poll that suggests that 70% of less than 3% (the reasonable % of eligible black voters of a 6% total population) could make such an impact on anything!
A "huge black turnout" did not win Barack Obama California-
Obama is against Gay marriage. How in the world can anyone take him seriously when he said he was also against Prop 8? I agree with Obama on so many issues but he lost me on this one and the Gay community was victim to it. We need someone in the White House who has the spine to really help fight for our rights--full civil rights and not civil something that he equates with the legalities of marriage because it's not.
It would make much more sense to say that Obama is against Prop 8, so how in the world can anyone take him seriously when he said he's against gay marriage? In fact he has consistently opposed all laws discriminating against gays, including those those those that deprive them of the right to marry.
That's correct ,Truthmachine,
Obama has said that his personal views are not favorable toward gay marriage, but as public policy, it is the right thing to do.... A very profound difference. I only wish my church (mormon) could understand the difference, and why that difference is necessary.
Until marriage stands for all it can not stand.
i couldn't agree more. This needs to turn into a full-blown civil rights movement in the streets. Shut down the 101 -- who is with me?
The gay community is the new Reginald Denny.
As a Canadian where marriage is legal country-wide, I send my condolences re the passing of Prop 8. I have friends in California and cannot believe they do not have the same rights as I do. We have had same sex marriage legalized for 3 years - can ANYONE not look North and see that our country is not falling apart, our families are intact, and no one is marrying a donkey? I sigh in sadness for the ignorance of the powers against you.
Yeah, apart from Canada recently electing a conservative government (prime minister?), Canada is right on. And even then a Canadian Conservative is probably closer to an American liberal. If ther Rethuglican Party actually does reinvent itself maybe things like this will change. However if Obama is perceived as weak the evils of conservatism will once again rear their ugly head and copies of Limbaugh's "See I Told You So" will fly off the shelves. I certanly hope none of this happens.
Shame on Californians for allowing this measuer to pass! Just when the election of Obama gave us hope that the Jesus freaks had lost their bite this happens. If the courts were able to overturn this before I would imagine they could overturn it again.
madcelt, i agree with you 100%, as an af-am lesbian, i'm sad that one, the af-am community is still irrationallly tied to "the church" when it comes to matters of civil rights...f
i wish obama would issue an executive order to legalize gay marriage for the entire country. gays and lesbians do not deserve to have only a handful of states recognize their union while most do not. he needs to take this issue out of the hands of the states period!!!!
or i'm moving to canada!!!!!
My birth certificate has my sex marked as 'unknown'.
Would a bigot care to inform me if I have the right to marry anyone at all under this discriminatory law?
Excellent point Cheryl!
Yeah, I think I agree - the establishment has a way of crushing the movement - when the movement becomes the establishment.
I was at two celebrations the night Obama won, - one of them was the Democratic establishment at a gigantic hotel ballroom, graciously open to the public, but very stodgy - and the other was out in the street with thousands of people in their 20s and 30s blocking traffic, honking horns, screaming for joy.
Needless to say, if I had not decided to leave the ballroom, I would have never seen the real celebration.
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