Still Second-Class Citizens
Read Frank Rich’s Sunday column from the New York Times. It’s about the path of gay rights over the past 40 years, and how there still is so much left to do. Excellent column.
The money quote:
No president possesses that magic wand, but Obama’s inaction on gay civil rights is striking. So is his utterly uncharacteristic inarticulateness. The Justice Department brief defending DOMA has spoken louder for this president than any of his own words on the subject. Chrisler noted that he has given major speeches on race, on abortion and to the Muslim world. “People are waiting for that passionate speech from him on equal rights,” she said, “and the time is now.”
Action would be even better. It’s a press cliché that “gay supporters” are disappointed with Obama, but we should all be. Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws. If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places.
It is interesting that Frank Rich didn’t know about Stonewall at the time. I was 19 in 1969 and I picked up on it immediately. Of course I was a semi-closeted fag. I had only come out to my best friend, parents, and the United States Draft Board. Having lived through these forty plus years since, one thing I have learned is patience. However, patience will not last too long. After all, forty years from now I’ll be 99. I hope by then President Spears will have done her best to push for our rights.
please let me dream about the decor for President Spear’s Oval office…
President Spears? Thanks for that. I’ll be having nightmares tonight. ;) Patience is indeed not infinite. I’m more impatient than you, Alan, I think.