As many of us are still tending to our wounds from a bittersweet victory Tuesday night, we find ourselves yet again as a community having to pick-up ourselves off the floor and figure out a way to move forward. The right hook, left jab, upper cut and gut punch we absorbed from resounding defeats to our civil rights in Florida, by way of Arkansas, traveling through Arizona, and most surprisingly ending up in California, as painful and crushing as those losses were, they need to stand as a stark reminder that the fight is far from over.
We can easily sit around here for hours discussing what went wrong and also talk with other friends and family about who we think is to blame. We can deconstruct numbers and exit polls and voice disillusionment as to which demographic disproportionately voted against our civil rights, but where does this all truly leave us? Are we simply aware now more than ever as to where outreach resources need to be re-focused and directed? That can’t be enough. It has to be more than that.
For the first time since 1994 and Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America, we have not just a Democratic President, but a comfortable and workable majority in the House and Senate. Another positive development from Election Day that seems to have passed without comment is more than 70% of the 111 LGBT candidates endorsed by the
http://www.victoryfund.org/news/view/url:gay_candidates_elected_across_the_u_s">Victory Fund won their races. And as all of us witnessed an historic moment in American politics, our President-Elect had this to say during his Election night speech:
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
That gave
me hope. After years of the arch-conservatives having a stranglehold on public policy, using their positions as a bully pulpit to continually marginalize communities that already felt ostracized by the greater majority of people in this country, we clearly have a President and Congress openly aware the we are a part of the fabric that unites this country.
I can't help but wonder, though, where the leadership is from someone,
anyone, in the LGBT community. Watching a feel good appearance during fundraising drives by a current Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign or GLAAD just doesn't cut it anymore. Our civil rights struggle is not only bereft of leadership, but lacks focus and cohesion. While we are making strides by getting elected both locally and nationally, I still feel there's a lack in a constructive dialog for full equality. There's a difference between demanding inclusion versus convincing fence sitters or detractors why we should be included. So again...where do we go from here? Do we let this seismic shift in political power pass us by?
This is about much more than tacking a "win/loss" onto state Propositions. It's about putting feet on the ground, ahead of last-minute fundraising to produce shiny/happy celebrity endorsements of our civil rights fight. The Right Wing has been organizing and banking money for decades. But even as their moment continues to wane due to spent political capital, depleted funds and sagging membership rolls, we lack not only a national presence, but a local, grassroots, bottom-up strategy. Obama's steady and unwavering campaign should serve as an example that this strategy can be quite successful.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
Where do we go from here? Ask yourself this over the coming days. Not just once, but throughout each and every day. And continue to ask this of yourself over the coming months. Hopefully, you will find an answer by January 20th because from that day forward is when the hard work begins.
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