Blind Prophecy

Tonight in Denver, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, delivered the annual State of the Movement speech. I was lucky enough to attend the Creating Change Leadership Conference last year and to hear Matt Foreman deliver his final State of the Movement address. Unfortunately, with the move to Cincinnati and the financial uncertainty of this year, I didn’t make plans to attend in 2009, although I certainly wanted to.

However, select clips of Carey’s speech are up on YouTube (along with other highlights from the conference):

The entire text of her speech can be read on The Bilerico Project.

While her speech lacks some of the rhetorical polish and delivery of Foreman’s SotM speeches, it’s still a valuable reminder of the accomplishment and setbacks of the past year coupled with progressive-valued ideas for moving forward.

This may be my favorite passage:

Have we done enough as a community to deal with our own racism and to make sure that our movement is one that reflects the true diversity of LGBT people? We sure haven’t. But the finger pointing and scapegoating was an affront to the many people of color and others who worked on and with the campaign and to our allied organizations.

Furthermore, it avoids the complexity of the work we still have to do to win equality. I have had enough. WE have had enough. Let us dig deep in ourselves and show others that we will not stoop to scapegoating, we will not turn our backs on our allies, and we will not give up.

There is a big difference between blaming and learning. Let us be learners so that we may be leaders.

I hope my friends at Creating Change are finding inspiration and learning new ways to help us all achieve equality.

Filed under: creating change, queer rights by Jere Keys