Blind Prophecy

I’m well aware that the majority of people who read and comment on my blog are gay, but there are also a number of non-LGBT allies who check in regularly. Today’s entry is for you in the second category. I know it’s a bit long as blogs go, but please hear me out.

Yesterday on the news I kept hearing the phrase “gays and lesbians are upset with President Obama and the lack of progress on gay rights.” It’s true that many LGBT folks are exasperated and upset with both Obama and the Democrats in general. I want to explain why, and more importantly, why we need you to join us in being exasperated and upset.

Last week the Department of Justice wrote a brief arguing for the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling which supported the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and since the Department of Justice is part of the executive branch, this brief technically reflects the legal opinions of the Obama administration. Now, some are saying that the brief compares gay and lesbian relationships to incest and pedophilia, while others say it simply references cases to prove a legal principle about recognition of marriages between states. Some say the brief was routine and represents the DOJ’s responsibility to defend the law even if they don’t like it, others say the brief went way too far in that defense and establishes a dangerous legal precedent that will be used against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in future legal debates. [See Law Dork for some excellent coverage of the controversies.]

Regardless, the brief has understandably upset many, many LGBT people because it has been interpreted as a sign that the Obama administration doesn’t intend to keep the campaign pledge of working toward the repeal of DOMA.

This brief comes at the end of a long list of missteps by the Obama administration on LGBT issues, and an even longer list of disappointments from Democrats in general.

First, there was the upset at Obama inviting Pastor Rick Warren, an evangelical preacher known to the community for his work on behalf of discriminatory marriage laws.

Then there was the firing of Lt. Dan Choi and the administration’s shifting language on when (or even if) the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military ban on openly LGBT servicemembers would be repealed – the President’s spokespeople insisting that Congress should change the law while many experts (and even Harry Reid) believe this could be done with an executive order… or that the President could at the very least halt DADT investigations until Congress changes the law.

Third, since Obama took office, four states have moved to marriage equality, and more have begun non-marriage relationship recognition at the state level, but the President has failed to publicly comment on these important moments in the LGBT community’s equality movement – except for making Iowa’s marriage equality the punchline of a joke during the White House Press Correspondents Dinner.

Fourth, yesterday was the first time we’ve heard anything about ENDA getting re-introduced in Congress, Senator Harry Reid said that he can’t even find a sponsor for a bill to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the Senate, the Senate keeps dicking around with hate crimes (attaching it to a tourism bill now?), and other LGBT bills like the Uniting American Families Act (treating same-sex partners like spouses for immigration purposes), the Family Leave Insurance Act (allowing LGBT people to take time off work to care for their families under existing laws designed for that purpose), the Safe Schools Improvement Act (to address bullying of LGBT youth), the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (to give health care to partners of federal employees), and the Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act (to eliminate the unequal tax burden for same-sex couples taking advantage of employer-provided health care for their partners), among others, are simply lost in the shuffle of “low priority” legislation.

Over the last 5 months, we’ve seen the White House try to dial back the extent of its campaign promises, pointedly equivocate and dodge questions about timelines and strategies, and generally ignore the concerns and pressing urgency that the LGBT community feels.

This is important background for you to understand. Just like it is important that you understand the even larger context of history. The modern queer rights movement often traces its roots back to the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. 40 years ago this month when a group of bar patrons got tired of the constant police raids and intimidation and started fighting back. In 1974, Rep. Bella Abzug and Rep. Ed Koch (both of New York) introduced the Equality Act of 1974, a sweeping federal bill that would have banned discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons, and women in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The bill was the first-ever national legislative proposal to end discrimination against lesbians and gay men. To date, Congress has yet to pass even one significant piece of legislation to eliminate discrimination against LGBT people. In a fight that has gone on longer than I’ve been alive… longer than my parents have known each other… we have achieved next to nothing at the federal level.

The Clinton years were especially hard. We thought we finally had a chance at some real progress, instead we got the fucking Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and the Defense of Marriage Act – two of the worst pieces of anti-LGBT legislation since the beginning of the queer rights movement – supported by our friends the Democrats and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It’s made us a little skeptical.

Oh, sure, queer political advocacy can claim some victories in AIDS legislation, in limited executive and administrative decrees in recent years, in Presidential proclamations and invitations to high-level meetings, in overturning truly archaic laws, and in judicial rulings. To give credit where credit is due, Obama has appointed gay and lesbian people to several high-level federal government positions. These victories are not meaningless. But in the context of the larger history, the larger inequality, they are mere crumbs.

For all the cultural change 40 years has wrought, for all the state and local level advances, the federal government is on par with Utah and Alabama in protecting people from anti-LGBT discrimination. You know that saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link? The American promise is only as progressive as rural Idaho.

Stay with me a little longer, allies, because I need you to understand these points. I belabor the history, the context, because I don’t think you understand.

Since the Republican takeover of the Federal government in 1994, we have heard the same refrain over and over again. If we want queer rights, we need to elect Democrats. When the Democrats took over Congress again in 2006, we were told that hate crimes, ENDA, the repeal of DOMA, the Uniting American Families Act, etc., were enjoying more support than ever before, but what was the point when George Dubya Bush was going to veto anything that made it through Congress (not, as it turned out, a theory that was ever tested as the Senate simply didn’t bother to put any queer bills to a vote).

So, now, after 40 years, we have Democrats in Congress and the White House again. We have widespread polling data to support us on a number of issues. We have 15 years of promises from Democrats that were followed by fundraising requests. And we’re getting more crumbs. Yesterday, Obama extended a small number of benefits to federal employees. As someone who is not a federal employee, I’m having a hard time getting terribly excited about this.

“But would you rather have the Republicans in power again?” Well, no, but you know what…? If the history books get written with a chapter on how the Democrats lost in 2012 because they failed to grasp the importance of the queer movement, lost the donations and support of LGBT people and their allies, and couldn’t understand why more promises didn’t win them back… I won’t cry at the significance of that insight. Until I see some radical results, I’m voting Green Party.

What does this have to do with you, allies? What is it I don’t think you understand?

Well, are you thinking that maybe I’m being a little hysterical and impatient? You bet your fucking ass I am. Are you thinking that I’m not taking into account all the other (“more”) important issues facing the nation, like the economy and the war? Isn’t it nice that you have the luxury to decide what is “more” important than your equality. A friend of mine put it best, “my family IS my biggest issue.”

See, allies, it’s easy for you to ignore the 40-year fight, to preach patience and waiting, to tell us to calm down and trust the Democrats. It’s easy because you don’t feel the weight of 40 years of disappointment. You don’t feel the dropping sensation in your stomach every time “wait” becomes “we ran out of time” or “you didn’t do enough to earn this.” (Aside: after gender identity protections were stripped from the last ENDA bill, a congressional leader who shall remain nameless told LGBT activists “you didn’t do enough to educate us on this issue” – talk about blaming the oppressed for their own oppression!) You don’t feel the sting of betrayal when your “friends” in power turn out to be completely tone deaf to the slights and pains and fierce urgency of inequality. Or maybe you do, but you haven’t connected it to the queer rights movement.

So, if you’re my ally, don’t tell me to calm down. Don’t tell me to be patient. Don’t tell me to trust that the Democrats will get around to my issues. Instead, listen to what we, the actual victims of legal inequality, are concerned about and help us.

And sometimes being an ally means more than just expressing a general belief in equality. Sometimes it requires you joining us in contacting lawmakers, writing blogs, writing letters to the editor, withholding your donations and volunteer hours for politicians and parties who stall on LGBT equality, speaking out, and telling your stories. We need you to make an effort for LGBT equality. The time is now. No more excuses, no more delays, no more empty promises.

To borrow a quote already being overused in the queer community this week, from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”:

For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

I do not seek to compare the queer rights movement to the long suffering and discrimination faced by generations of Americans of color. I cite Dr. King because he, too, makes the point that that those who live under oppression are better judges of the urgent need for change. Those of us who have lived and experienced heterosexism, cisgenderism, or biphobia are calling on you take action. It is urgent, it is necessary, it is time. We cannot, we shall not let another generation die without celebrating the fullness of American citizenship. We cannot, we shall not let another generation come of age under the oppressive stain of legal discrimination.

Yesterday on the news I kept hearing the phrase “gays and lesbians are upset with President Obama and the lack of progress on gay rights.” If every non-LGBT person in our lives who considers themselves our allies were to join us in expressing anger, frustration, and outrage at the foot-dragging on LGBT rights, this struggle would be over. I can’t wait for the day when the news starts saying “most Americans are frustrated at the lack of progress on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights…” or even better “today, most Americans are celebrating the end of legal discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

p.s. One last thing, I never beg people to forward, share, or pass along my blogs. This time, I’m asking you to. If you know someone who needs to hear this message, please pass it along.

Filed under: politics, queer rights by Jere Keys