Where is the gay MLK?

[ContinentalOp]

We need a massive civil rights march on Salt Lake City. We need local marches and demonstrations at Catholic churches, Baptist churches... any and all agencies of intolerance. We need education and outreach for the people who are so obviously misled and misinformed.

We absolutely do not need unhelpful BS like a teacher in SF taking school children to a gay wedding a month before the election.

And this movement needs to start NOW. Not in 3 years on the eve of another election but today. Where is the leadership? Yard signs and bumper stickers just aren't going to cut it.

[LeftCoast]

1. Well, they murdered Harvey Milk

The rest of us are just trying to do our part.

[dogpatch]

3. oops, you beat me to it!

I type too slowly :)

[Chovexani]

5. You said it

:(

[dogpatch]

2. He was killed by Dan White in 1978

I don't mean that flippantly. We've had a lot of great leaders, and Harvey Milk was certainly one. And like MLK, paid with his life.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ContinentalOp]

6. Yes, I know about Harvey Milk.

Maybe I should have asked where the gay Barack Obama is. I hope some new leaders will emerge in the coming years.

[EFerrari]

7. Remember that a lot of the Freedom Riders were white, ContinentalOp.

We need to deepen and widen the coalition.

[ContinentalOp]

8. Yes, exactly! You get my point. We need leadership who will bring people together on this issue.

I'm not gay but I'm willing to march in solidarity. But where's the organization?

I'm serious, why not a massive march on Salt Lake City? Not the next time a ballot initiative like this comes up but now. Tomorrow.

And not to belittle the achievements of Harvey Milk but he wasn't really a national figure in that larger, unifying way that someone like MLK was.

[EFerrari]

9. It's not over yet. There's no consession and two suits are being filed today.

I tend to think the courts will have to settle this. Arkansas wasn't going to vote to integrate Central High, right?

But at the same time, yes. We keep our signs up and keep representing. I'm not gay either and am waiting for one of the email lists to send me a clue as to the next step. That none of them have yet means I'm either on the wrong lists or that there is no organized clue. I'm hoping it's the former.

[ContinentalOp]

10. Yeah, I know this is definitely not the end. It just feels frustrating...

that this mostly is playing out as a legal issue without any big cultural shifts to go along with it. But I guess that's how the civil rights movement played out too.

[Aeval]

15. yes, but only because of leaders like MLK and others who would not

stop, who kept marching, and I agree, there needs to be a bigger movement with bigger leaders for gay rights.

But a march Temple Square would be a pretty good place to start (and would feel pretty fucking great to me!)

[backscatter712]

11. I'll celebrate some small victories..

In Colorado, we elected Jared Polis, first openly gay candidate to be elected to the House of Representatives (yes, I know Barney Frank and others are gay, but they didn't come out of the closet until after they were in office.)

Oh, and we fired Marilyn Musgrave!!!

[slampoet]

12. Harvey Milk Isn't Dead Enough For you? Who are these people who don't know anything w/o Google?

[lies and propaganda]

14. they were discussing Martin Luther King

and hes dead too..

We need someone like both of them!

[EFerrari]

17. #7.

[ContinentalOp]

18. WTF are you on about?

I'm not asking for a martyr. I'm asking for a real living leader with a vision to lead a movement NOW. It was a figure of speech. I'm not talking history, I'm talking about current tactics. It's nice to assume that everything will just work itself out in the courts but I think we need a broad cultural movement to go along with the legal battles if any real change is going to be made.

[slampoet]

22. Then ask "Where is the Gay Thurgood Marshall?"

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Well, standing beside MLK

was Bayard Rustin, a gay man. He helped to shape Dr King's words and vision, he was a cheif organizer of the March on Washington, he was in fact the man who taught King about Ghandi's methods of civil disobedience. Mr Rustin's life and work are a great part of why Coretta King became such a strong advocate of GLBT equaility. She knew who had brought about the great works, along with Martin and herself. She knew Bayard Rustin was integrel to the form and sucess of the movement.
But he was gay, so almost no one even knows his name. No one bothers to read up on what Martin thought of a man he called friend and teacher. Nope.

[EFerrari]

19. We sent Tom Ammiano to the state assembly yesterday.

At least we got that right. He got like 80% of the votes in that district.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. What I would really like to see come form this

is California taking a good long look at the realities of politics there. I'm from SoCal, and one of the reasons I don't live there anymore is that it is living in the past. California is not and never has been as Blue as the current population thinks. Pockets of Red, patches of Blue....the sad part about 8 and the one here in Oregon in 2004 is that so many Democrats voted for them. I'd say "Democrats" but I am so sick of McCain's airquotes that I may never use quotation marks again in any way. Same thing here though, but at least Oregon knows it has a Red streak.

[EFerrari]

26. I think we know that's only the coast is really blue.

The anti H8 organization wasn't great. Was there GOTV in San Francisco? I didn't see any. Why did it pass by about 1% in LOS ANGELES? We need L.A. to pass just about any left leaning measure.

After people are all finished being furious, I want to know what happened and what needs to be fixed here. Maybe they counted too much on Obama getting liberals to the polls. But, he's a centrist and his people aren't necessarily anti 8 people. I honestly don't know.

[HooptieWagon]

31. Hillsborough County (Tampa)

yesterday elected an openly gay political newcomer to County Commission replacing the incumbant - an ex-pro wrestler fundie who was in bed with developers. yesterdays results sure were perplexing...

[Chovexani]

27. Thank you for bringing up Rustin

Without him the March never would have happened.

Black LGBT history is even more invisible than LGBT history in general.

[JVS]

16. Where is the gay Jackie Robinson?

I'm not even sure that our country has reached the point of the MLK era on this issue.

[ContinentalOp]

23. Yes, I kind of agree. The country wasn't ready for it in 1978 but I think we're ready now. nt

[slampoet]

20. Where are the famous openly gay Ministers?

Most of the openly gay clergy i have met would never take religion into the public sphere outside their congregations
The Gay Lib movement doesn't use religion to shield .........themselves from those who would harm them.

Instead the gay-lib movement skipped that step.

Given the history of Gay liberation and the problems religion has made worse, i don't blame them but If you are looking for a leader to make gayliberation acceptable to the religious right,.....

[ContinentalOp]

24. True, I think the gay civil rights movement is at a disadvantage...

as compared to the black civil rights movement, since they lack this strong organizing role of the church.

Maybe there is also a generational disadvantage. Black kids in the 60s saw what their parents and grandparents went through but many young gay people are more alone and isolated in this sense. Since their parents weren't necessarily gay, there's not really a movement that gets handed down from generation to generation in quite the same way.

Of course there is also the tragedy that we lost so many gay men in the 70s and 80s to AIDS. We an entire generation of would-be leaders is largely gone.

[Greyhound]

21. I'm sorry, he was an unknown 21 year old that was murdered by Raygun & Co.

in 1983 during the purge.

:grr::cry::grr:

[FreeState]

28. Here's a better question- where the hell are our non gay supporters?

I volunteered for no on 8 and never once saw more than 3 or 4 straight people helping out with 100's of gay people. When I look back at MLK I see a ton of non Black supporters who were there helping out. Unfortunately, in my opinion, we get a lot of lip service and very little actual support from non-gay persons.

(Note: to those straight alleys thank you - you are there just not in the numbers any of us hoped for...)

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. No, you need those marches on DC, and state houses, were the law gets made

marching on the churches will get you zero in the end

If you look at the model of MLK he understood this... and so did Ghandhi, who was MLKs model

Let me add some other things you need

1.- Get the IRS to investigate these tax exempt organizations for violating their status

2.- Reach across and create alliances with other groups... since alone nothing will happen

3.- Practice non violence

4.- If people offer to join you, accept the help

[arcadian]

30. Why don't you go out and become that person?

n/t