Today the New York Senate voted down gay marriage 38 to 24.
I think gay activists need to regroup and study what happened not only in New York but in California and Maine. It isn't simply a matter of more money and better ads. The entire battle needs to be reframed and recast. Losing may be enlightening.
"Perge modo et qua te ducit via dirige gressum," said Venus to Aeneas.
3 comments:
I think you are absolutely right. We have already re-structured the movement from national organizations into grassroots, but now we need to re-think how to get our message across. Not just to the easy targets, but how to really change hearts and minds. Who do our allies need to be to reach those communities that consistently oppose us?
Well as Alan Van Cappelle has stated... it is a good thing we finally have had a debate and vote so as to know who is an ally and who is an enemy of equality. I think that is a very positive way to look at this. He says time is on our side. Although on your note, i have always supported filing a class action suit against the federal government.
I still feel this is a question of law that can be settled under the law.
I have no faith in settling equality under the guise of a popularity contest, nor do I believe that it is possible to change hearts and build minds. I think we should leave that to the neocons. They seem to think they know how to do that.
No other minority has had to go through the hoops we have. During my last stint in HR, I learned that Berkeley had 141 different minorities. They all got theirs on the coattails of the Civil Rights Act.
But ours is the question that will haunt every single democracy of this century: Are we equal under the law or are we not? It would be a simple function of search-and-replace if we aren't. "except the gays."
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