Times change, people don't usually. It seems to me though that there are many opportunities afoot.
In the wake of last week's election (was it really only a week ago?!? Yup!), the change in the White House is precipitating change everywhere. A very new leader in our pantheon has children of all ages pondering what's truly possible.
Black American children can ponder the option of the Presidency, and feel its truth, for the first time. And American children of all colors and circumstances of birth can see that whether they are boys or girls, options exist for them to make a difference both individually and together. But not all is rosy.
California voters of ALL descriptions handed their LGBTI fellow citizens a bitter, though not lasting, defeat. For all the heterosexual mixed race couples who feel free holding hands and marrying - Asian and Black, White and Asian, White and Black, Latin and Black, etc., have you forgotten (or perhaps are entirely ignorant) of the 1968 Supreme Court decision in Loving v. The State of Virginia that guaranteed YOUR right under the constitution to equal protection in whom you love? Equality is no different for the hue of your skin in the eyes of Whomever you believe in, so why should the gender of whom I love make a whit's (or a wit's) difference to you?!?
The Mormon Church and the Catholic Church and several Pentecostal and Evangelical Churches poured MILLIONS of dollars into encoding, for now, discrimination into the constitutions of California, Florida and Arizona. But these houses, divided among themselves, cannot stand. First, those MILLIONS of American dollars in this dicey economy could have greater effect in creating jobs for the jobless, homes for the homeless, food for the hungry, and literacy for those who can't read. It could help immigrants become legal citizens and help runaway youth avoid the pitfalls they encounter on the way to their new lives or back to resume the ones they've left.
More important is the fact that all of these hate-mongers hiding behind the symbol of their religion are not heeding the New Testament teachings they claim to embrace. And the victory they've bought, yes BOUGHT, is Pyhrric since the discrimination they are trying to encode violates the full protection clause of the US Constitution. Under full protection, I believe that DOMA and Don't Ask Don't Tell will also be repealed, but not without OUR fight.
Here's what we do - grass roots organizing to change minds one by one. Tell each person why Marriage Equality is part of full equality for every person. Whether or not they feel marriage is important - whether they are married, single, divorced, gay, straight, bi, etc. We all deserve full equality. And when we HAVE that, we still can't rest - because we have to fight to KEEP our rights. Look at Roe v. Wade.
Bottom line - learn about your neighbors, co-workers and friends and be part of the greater family. Sleeper cells and terrorism exist in places where we are separated from one another, disenfranchised and don't give or receive the opportunity for understanding.
Once we start work on this, we are on our way to the Brave New World.
