The influence of the Gertrude Stein Club is stronger than ever.
For all the hype about hope, Obama is still a
calculating politician.
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Bruce Carroll
Friday, April 23, 2004
THE BACKLASH OVER gay marriage during the past few weeks doesn’t come as
a surprise to me. I predicted it months ago to a group of friends who are rabidly
in support of pushing the issue.
I told them that while there was a gay-marrying frenzy breaking out in San
Francisco, Oregon, and New Paltz, N.Y., most Americans were not at a place
to accept this change.
Since two-thirds of Americans oppose gay marriage, and the same percentage
support legal protections for gays in the workplace, then why, I asked, are
the radical gay groups forcing marriage down the throats of America at this
time?
But it wasn’t the “religious right” or President Bush who
started this round of the culture war. It was us.
The battle was clearly started by gay activists who adopted the tactic of
challenging marriage laws across the country. The battle was joined, of course,
by the conservatives now pushing for a federal constitutional amendment.
But we need to step up and admit that the responsibility of the gay marriage
debate, good or bad, is squarely on the shoulders and the consciences of the
so-called leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay & Lesbian
Task Force, Log Cabin Republicans and their ilk.
Now the dominoes are falling against us, in Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi.
A state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in those states will
be put before voters. Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi — not surprising,
right?
But in Massachusetts, far from a bastion of the religious right, the state
legislature adopted a constitutional amendment, though it still must survive
additional legislative votes next year before it goes on the ballot there.
SO THERE WE have it. This decision by our supposed leaders to push gay marriage
onto center stage in America at this time and in this election year has resulted
in a colossal setback that is solely the fault of those same groups.
Why? Because instead of appreciating the feelings of most Americans and undertaking
a long-term commitment to educate our nation about who we are, our leaders
took the easy way and went to the courts to dictate one version of morality
and forced tolerance from the bench. That strategy is faulty and will never
work.
What we saw in Massachusetts, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi will be replicated
in nearly every other state of the union. So the net impact of our activists
launching this culture war will become discrimination enshrined into state
constitutions. That certainly doesn’t seem a step forward for gay rights.
Gay leaders will scratch their heads and wonder what went wrong, but the fact
that they don’t “get it” is proof enough that we need to
find a new way and new leadership.
Instead we get Rosie O’Donnell who says she’s getting married
in front of TV cameras merely because President Bush says he’s opposed
to it. Well, that’s one sure way for opponents to question the sincerity
of the true commitment to gay marriage, isn’t it?
THE PATH TO gay marriage is not to force Americans to accept a morality they
are not prepared to embrace. Instead of radical gay groups spending their precious
few dollars, time and resources engaging in court fights and street battles,
it’s time to turn our attention to the hearts and minds of mainstream
America.
What is needed is a fundamental and, most importantly, mature awareness campaign
across the country about what it is to be a gay or lesbian American today.
We all need to be willing to come out of our closets — proverbial or
not — and let our friends, family and work colleagues know who we are.
Let them know that we pay our taxes just like them. Let them know we experience
the ups and downs of daily life just like them. Let them know that we want
the same financial, job and relationship security that they enjoy. Let them
know that we want to be as tolerant of their long-standing religious beliefs
as we want them to be tolerant of ours.
Until the leaders of these radical gay groups come to grips that they have
wasted precious years on counterproductive strategies, we will continue to
face these predictable setbacks to gay marriage and other issues with increasing
frequency.
Until all of us start reaching out to mainstream Americans, instead of shouting
in their faces, we will continue to be responsible for our own failures.
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