Prioritizing the movement
USA Today is reporting on the steps some LGBT advocates think should be taken to re-prioritize and focus our movement.
“There will be some hard questions asked about where marriage ranks on the list of possibilities and priorities” for the LGBT movement, PFLAGer Steve Ralls told the paper.W
Writer Clyde Wilcox (”The Politics of Gay Rights) said, “Marriage is just an issue where the public is not there yet.”
I think there need to be two sets of priorities. We’re L or G or B or T or whatever, but we’re also Americans. USA Today hits on it with a comment from Join The Impact founder Amy Balliett:
Amy Balliett, whose website, jointheimpact.wetpaint.com, mobilized thousands Saturday to protest the reversal of gay marriage in California, plans more demonstrations, but she says the economy must come first. “Barack Obama can’t put his initial focus” on gay marriage, says Balliett, who wed her partner in California last month. “That is just not fair to our nation.”
I think national LGBT organizations need to come together with the Obama administration and offer ways to reach our community on issues surrounding the economy. There are ways LGBT orgs could reach out and raise awareness on good spending habits. Personally, I’m a fan of QueerCents.
When it comes to our Civil Rights Agenda, we need to think long and hard about the realities of the political world in which we currently find our movement. We’ve made lots of progress, but not enough to dramatically alter a Western Civilization-notion of “marriage.” I just don’t think we’re there yet: Not enough people are able to deconstruct “marriage” and separate its civil component from its religious component.
If, for some reason, the HRC Board of Directors or Task Force Board decided to hire me today, my priority list would likely fall like:
1. Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (fully inclusive)
2. Federal hate crimes legislation (fully inclusive)
3. State-by-state (50 State Strategy, anyone?) on securing safe schools legislation to protect vulnerable youth.
4. A smarter, wiser and more disciplined state-by-state, non-federal, preferably non-judicial approach to securing marriage equality.
But all that’s pretty much echoed in the USA Today piece. I think its the best strategy. Marriage will come… really it will. But I’m not convinced its the best way to get equality across the board. It’s great at mobilizing folks, but much beyond that its just, more often than not, a failure in the making.
In addition to my four-point priority list, I’d likely call a meeting with every, major national LGBT organization and form a united committee/commission/task force/something to oversee a dramatic overhaul of where and how each national group operates. As mentioned in a previous post, each group does its own thing and does it well — getting every group on the same page and working in a unilateral way will move us forward as a strong, seamless and strategically united front.
Oh… and I’d give Amy Balliett a job, real quick, on theat committee/commission/task force/something thingy.
About the Author: Matt
4 Responses to “Prioritizing the movement”
Another issue, somewhat longer-term, that must be addressed is the way Evangelical parents are trying to combat the generation gap in the attitude toward gays and gay rights by increasingly relying on redacted homeschooling.
Besides the fact that we are facing, in about 10-15 years, waves of “homeschooled” (i.e., uneducated) Southern illiterates trying to enter the real-world workforce, we will also see significant numbers of gay youths and 20-somethings who will have no idea how to be gay in an increasingly gay-friendly, or at least gay-tolerant, non-Jesusland America. They’re going to need a new kind of support system, quite different from what we have been erecting in non-Jesusland thus far.
By KipEsquire on Nov 21, 2008
“…we will also see significant numbers of gay youths and 20-somethings who will have no idea how to be gay in an increasingly gay-friendly, or at least gay-tolerant, non-Jesusland America. They’re going to need a new kind of support system, quite different from what we have been erecting in non-Jesusland thus far.”
I’m hoping that as our society becomes more gay-friendly, teens and youth will never have to learn “how to be gay.” I hope they’ll learn how to be good friends and family members, good lovers & future spouses, good citizens and community members, leaders with integrity and faithful members in whatever faith tradition from which they’ve come.
I think that’s ultimately where we want to go, right? A society that holds up honesty, love, kindness and forgiveness; a society that doesn’t really care if you’re gay or straight or what-have-you, but one where a 16-year-old kid never has to be afraid to tell his or her parents about their significant other, no matter the gender; and a society that respects people for who they are.
By Matt on Nov 22, 2008
And… I should add: A society that recognizes all teens and youth need education and support, especially when it comes to keeping themselves safe. I never received good and sound sex education that would have helped me in college.
By Matt on Nov 22, 2008