Dear Friend and Reader,
WHAT A DAY. Aretha Franklin in that great hat singing the best version of “America” I’ve ever heard, Barack Obama’s speech to the nation, watching Bush take off in his helicopter, never to return (hopefully), followed by the frightening and sudden illnesses and recoveries of Senators Byrd and Kennedy at the luncheon.
And, yet, as the parade goes on with those funny-dressed girls from Mobile, Alabama and the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, I’m subdued.
Must be disenfranchised-itis, that feeling you get when someone’s taken your civil rights and traded it like a playing card to step-up to the greater good. It’s the feeling you get when you’re a woman who’s been sexually harassed by a coworker, but he’s such a damn good programmer that the company chooses to promote him, not fire him. It’s also the feeling you get when a fundamentalist Christian who thinks you don’t deserve basic human rights is allowed to perform the invocation at the Presidential inauguration, because there are some things that he and the presidentВ do agree on.
Pastor Rick Warren, the evangelical leader that has spoken out, loudly, against marriage equality and a woman’s right to choose, gave the invocation at Obama’s inauguration this afternoon. And I want to know why.
As President Obama stated in his speech today, we are a nation comprised of people from every country in the world, and of many faiths — and that is not a weakness, it’s an asset. We are stronger for our diversity, but it’s not the actual diversity that makes us that way, it’s the fact that we respect our differences.
But sometimes we don’t. Sixty years ago, actually far fewer years ago, there would be some restaurants in DC that wouldn’t have let Barack Obama’s father in. We shake our heads in shame at that portion of our history, and if the father of Eugenics were alive today, I can promise you he wouldn’t be within 1000 miles of that podium today. Because it’s a definitive fact in this day and age that racism is wrong. The jury’s still out on homosexuality.
I recognize that these issues are personal to me, and that it makes me more invested than someone who is not gay, who wasn’t on the phone with an immigration attorney today asking if there are any avenues at all for same-sex couples, asking if there’s any chance at all of being with the person I love in the country I know, and been told, “no.” My relationship means nothing in the eyes of the law, and I am invested in changing that.
And, while it is the responsibility of me and my community to stand up and fight for our rights, it’s also the job of the privileged outsider to recognize wrongdoing. This issue, giving a homophobic reverend the greatest honor a religious figure can get at an inauguration, can’t be balanced out by having an openly gay bishop give the invocation at an inaugural event on Sunday, or by letting the queer band march in the parade. Civil rights isn’t a game of even stevens.
I voted for Barack Obama, and that was probably my happiest day of 2008. But using my civil rights as a bargaining chip to placate the Christian right demographic is wrong. There were so many other reverends. Why’d he have to choose Warren?
Yours & truly,
Rachel Asher
Hey Rachel, second inaugral oath, no bible. Lots of constitutional talk. Good sign I think. Maybe study up on Lincoln, that’s the bible the pres used on swear in, take one.
To see what the Obama administration’s agenda is with respect to LGBT rights, here is a good place to start:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/
It’s rough, but we are gonna have to engage in those tough conversations.
Is that the old testament he is reading or the new testament. Alot of that religious stuff they quote is all the old crap. After all, christians are about the “christ” teachings. Maybe he hasn’t been saved yet. You don’t have to get any on ya, there are gay churches: talk to the brothers and sisters there about the biblical references.
And going there might not be good. Because it brings church to law and that ain’t good. But then again, there ain’t no commandment against it, is there.
I think obama might want the gay community pissed off. Get your ire up. Get a conversation going. It’s too blatant a move to be without motive.
And Rachel, I am so glad you actually have someone you can relate to and share with, that is a major achievment in my book. Love and art. Love and art. Love and art.
Rachel, I was in the very same place. For your reasons here, and several others as well. I felt like the girl who never got a date to the prom – everyone but me was out there celebrating. I just couldn’t muster anything for it. I’m glad that Bush is gone, but, well, there’s just too much dissonance going on for me to feel like jumping in with both feet. I dunno. I’ve been feeling like there’s something wrong with me. So, even though I’m really sorry you’re suffering over this, it’s kind of nice to see I wasn’t the only one.
And don’t worry – changes like equal rights rarely ever come from the top. And in every step toward freedom there has always been an old guard that wanted to prevent it. But nothing has ever successfully held back those tides for long. It’s always the will of the people, their voices growing louder in dissent, that get things going. I think we are fast approaching (if we haven’t already passed) a critical mass of support. So what needs to happen next is some direct action, where all of us who believe in freedom for ALL make ourselves seen and heard, en masse. Maybe now that we’re not putting all of our efforts into dissenting against the insanity of the Bush administration, a serious movement that extends beyond Facebook finding a million people who support gay marriage can begin to gel. At least, I certainly hope so.
I will say that I thought the Rev. stuck out as a curious choice yesterday … and maybe that was intentional, for all of us to see how strange his words in the midst of such a progressive and spiritual vibe. For me, I couldn’t believe he was reciting such blatantly christian prayers. Certainly, he wasn’t my choice and I end up thinking that the whole affair would have been better without him. There was a Rev. on the Oprah show who put it in MOST FITTING TERMS, and I quote: “being gay is a gift”. Brilliant!! and much more fitting with the day and the crowd, IMHO. I can’t remember his name but he is the pastor from a church I once went to in Pasadena, Ca. Brilliant!! and so true.
There were so many wonderful moments yesterday, I am sorry that this clod may have ruined an otherwise wonderful communal event for you, Rachel. I’m sorry that I didn’t even get it until I read your piece.
mm.
I am taking an optimistic view of the choice: that Obama is putting his money where his mouth is re: working together. That it’s not just the cool kids (i.e., anyone who breathed a sigh of relief when Obama won) who will have to work together to rebuild America, but really that EVERYone — even people I personally may think are utterly benighted, astonishingly ignorant, and downright dangerous — will have to work together. Maybe we really are moving into an era where everyone can be heard and have a seat at the table. Maybe it’s not all lip service this time. This won’t necessarily feel like a group hug. I think it will be more like marriage counseling.
I agree with Elizadudley that “the vote is still out in the hearts and minds of many heteros as well as closeted, begrudgingly gay folk whether or not being gay is ‘against nature’.” Passing the disenfranchisement buck along to the Christian right is not progress but rather just another round of “who’s up/who’s down?” The way I see it, I have to respect that someone like Warren has the right to his beliefs same as I have the right to mine. I’m just glad he was only giving the invocation, not being sworn in!
Rachel,
It does seem to be an interesting stroke of this presidency. The victory of Obama and that of Prop 8, then such a key honor designated to Warren. I don’t say this conspiratorily but perhaps as a question for astrology or other modes of archetypal patterning. What is going on in the cosmos to underline the discrepancy of one group of people so openly stepping through a historical hurtle while another group is simultaneously highlighted with steps back?
I’m not gay so I don’t feel that particular affront as keenly but I am a woman and your analogy of a “woman who’s been sexually harassed by a coworker” rings true and it is curious. I also think that Warren was a gesture of “lets all play fair now folks” from Obama to the liberal agenda and a political dog biscuit thrown to the christian right zealots of our nation. Perhaps it was a weird way of saying to a demographic most-likely well populated by honky’s with guns, “I am YOUR president as well…DON’T SHOOT” But I agree that the gay agenda is really being used and that is striking. Why should this be OK? Its not. But I think the truth is the vote is still out in the hearts and minds of many heteros as well as closeted, begrudgingly gay folk whether or not being gay is “against nature”. And this confusion breeds hatred, obscuring the evolution of our human understanding. Centuries of religious doctrine used for social and political control also plays a big part in this obstacle to acceptance and equality. We still have a long way to go as a species let alone as a country and in the meantime, injustice still blatantly jabs us in our sleep.
But of course this does not mean I think our short-sightedness is cause for resignation but rather, more questioning, more sharing with others and the world how we are being hurt by our lack of understanding and allowing the hurt to rub pearls from our shell walls. Thank you for putting it to us.
-EDW
i think popularity, plain and simple.