One group I have not criticized for their disappointment, impatience, or stinging criticism is the LGBT community. Some may be confused about their logic, but I think Martin Luther King Jr. put it best:
Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. 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.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
When you understand the LGBT community’s struggle as a fight for dignity, security, respect, and basic human rights, you understand why their actions and attitudes do not necessarily align in some logical way with the fortunes of their best available allies. That doesn’t mean that I don’t see John Cole’s point, nor does it mean that I don’t bristle at some of the rhetoric I’ve heard from some in the LGBT community. But I’m not going to ask them to wait. I’m not going to ask them to be realistic. The country is moving towards accepting gay rights, gay marriage, and gay equality. There’s no reason for them to trim their sails now.
As always, I think it’s important to be fair. Our country faces many very big problems, and they can’t all be addressed at once. But, for the people at the forefront of the fight for equality, they should continue to fight to move equality to the front of the queue.
If what seems to be happening indeed happens, they’ll have every right to be even more pissed than they are now. I have a question for you, Boo. Remember how Obama twisted Dennis K.’s arm for his HCR/HIR vote? Does he do that kind of thing for votes other than war funding? And I know why Obama is waiting, but that doesn’t mean things will turn out any better.
Boo:
Did you see Obama’s 60 Minutes interview last night? I am wondering what you thought about it.
Did you even read what he wrote? He’s agreeing with you in this piece! lol
How much of that acceptance is the result of them NOT trimming their sails? How much acceptance was driven by forcing people to confront the idea of homosexuals being discriminated against? Forcing people to ask “Is there a good reason that justifies this?”
Of course I guess we’ll see what happens. I think DADT’s removal will be stripped from the bill before Thanksgiving.
In this part of the country and outside of the GOP religious right churches, the Ellen DeGeneres factor has been huge. When you know folks who don’t fit stereotypes, even if they are only on the teevee, it is much harder to maintain your prejudices. You can still do it but it takes a whole lot of effort and a radio tuned to rightwing radio.
And that has allowed more folks to come out with their families. There is a relief among those families that they don’t have to hide and deny and rationalize and explain anymore.
And even in the South, a large segment of the younger generation is becoming more tolerant. Indeed for some, tolerance is a form of adolescent rebellion against their parents.
The Republicans have lost the abortion fight, the fight against homosexual rights, and the fight against immigrants. That is one of the things that has deranged them. The old wedge issues don’t work anymore. They now have to code them: Obama’s birth certificate; Nancy Pelosi’s “San Francisco” liberal values; it isn’t the legal immigrants, it’s the illegal immigrants (but please not the law-violating employers). Their hubris over this election will drag them down again if’n this country can ever again return to peace and prosperity. And that’s why the drumbeats of war on Iran are starting.
I am not so sure Republicans have lost the abortion fight(Stupak Amendment … current composition of the Supreme Court .. ). We’ll see.
I disagree. Iowa has shown that knowing people doesn’t work, three SCOTSOI judges are gone. I know two of them personally from my time there. They were very much in tune with Iowa except for this issue apparently.
And more people support abortion restrictions than before. Not blanket bans, and exceptions but more and more people think stuff like parental notification and waiting periods etc. are okay.
Obama is as much of a bigot as the rest of them. Is that what you’re tiptoeing around?
Obama is as conflicted over this issue as Jefferson was over slavery. One hopes that Obama winds up making a better decision than Jefferson did.
We will probably know by January.
Are you equating the spineless, all-sides-of-every-issue Obama with the firebrand Jackson? That’s hilarious! Jackson was partisan and he didn’t hide from his enemies. Obama is a rank appeaser who squandered a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I admit that Jackson was a REAL @$$hole, but everyone always knew where he stood. Obama, he stands for…civility.
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t see John Cole’s point, nor does it mean that I don’t bristle at some of the rhetoric I’ve heard from some in the LGBT community. But I’m not going to ask them to wait.”
But John Cole isn’t asking them to wait, either. Really, I don’t think anyone is (the opposition certainly isn’t; they don’t want them to have rights, ever). What he’s doing is questioning the effectiveness of their methods. If anything, he’s trying to suggest ways by which their waiting could be reduced. The MLK quote certainly rings true (and it’s beautiful and poetic and all that stuff), but imo it’s addressing a strawman. Everyone in the room wants gay rights, and everyone wants them ASAP. The debate is about methods, not goals or timetables.
Right. And that means Cole is criticizing them for exactly the same reason that Booman constantly criticizes the entire FDL-type left-blog detractors of Obama. So why should this be any different?
It is very interesting to see folks give up the fight before it happens. And then blame the President all because the Log Cabin Republicans got a court decision that if the Supreme Court upholds will drive the GOP nuts. Which is why the Supreme Court, that bastion of GOP correctness to the point of selecting a President, will not uphold it.
I understand the frustration, but change is not granted it is made by the grassroots. And then ratified by politicians.
YES!
Humans are basically intolerant creatures. Our politicians only reflect on ourselves. The fight against intolerance is difficult and unending. However, it does not start with the politicians, it ends with them.
I understand the frustration, but change is not granted it is made by the grassroots. And then ratified by politicians.
So you are admitting that politicians in general are a cowardly, spineless lot? So why do we call them leaders? Because they are nothing of the sort. They won’t even approve something 70%(if not more) of the country support.
We call them leaders to flatter them. Most of them see a parade and run to be the drum major.
Thank you so much for this BooMan. You are a national treasure.
Rather than weigh in on this debate, I’d like to urge every to call Senator Levin’s office and tell him not to strip DADT repeal from the defense authorization bill:
Here are his office numbers:
(202) 224-6221 – (313) 226-6020 – (517) 377-1508 –
(616) 456-2531 – (586) 573-9145 – (906) 789-0052 –
(989) 754-2494 – (231) 947-9569