"So what does it mean that gay rights activists, once the standard-bearers for sexual freedom, are now preoccupied with the sober institution of marriage?" asks the New York Times' Tamar Lewin. One answer comes from David Greer, a gay Republican activist. "If you look back to the 60's, the movement was about liberation,'' he tells the Times. "Gay liberation had a lot to do with freeing people from gender roles, while marriage was seen as the oppressive male hegemonic institution, which lesbians, especially, didn't want any part of.'' Greer adds, however, that "Marriage actually should have been the goal of the movement all along."
Ah, but that would have been a very different movement, in a very different world. Suffice to say, the gay rights struggle went through a delayed and prolonged adolescence, and is now ready to settle down -- kind of like Warren Beatty.
Seriously , the outpouring of emotion as thousands of gay couples flock across country to exchange vows rivals the highpoint of grassroots AIDS protests in the '80s, and certainly makes the tame professional lobbying of late for ENDA and hate crimes laws -- the heretofore holy grails of the gay movement -- pale in comparison. Anti-discrimination statutes targeting the private sector never generated a groundswell of activism because the vast majority of gays and lesbians never encountered workplace discrimination -- or if they did, moved on to other jobs. Philosophically, too, many of us had doubts about more government mandates on the hiring and promotion decisions made by private employers, and about hate crime laws adding penalties not for actions, but for what criminals were thinking.
But the gay masses have awakened and are now demanding what they know to truly be a fundamental human right too long denied, and movement "leaders" are scrambling to catch up. (An aside: there were, of course, a few notable exceptions who showed real leadership -- Evan Wolfson, originally at Lambda Legal and now as head of Freedom to Marry, comes to mind.)
Still More on the Culture War.
"Bush's Backfire" is IGF contributing author Rick Rosendall's
take on gay marriage and the culture war, at
Salon.com. Rick writes:
The fundamentalist Christian right -- the constituency of Judge Roy Moore and other apocalyptic preachers -- will never be satisfied short of remaking the entire country in their own theocratic image, which is impossible in a pluralistic Western democracy. Yet continuing to let itself be held hostage to these fanatics will be ruinous to the [Republican] party's long-term mainstream appeal.
Meanwhile, Calif. Governor Schwarzenegger appeared on the
Tonight Show with a different GOP message, telling Jay Leno that it
would be "fine with me" if state law were changed to permit
same-sex marriages,
reports the LA Times. Schwarzenegger also strongly rejected
President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning
same-sex marriage. "I think those issues should be left to the
state, so I have no use for a constitutional amendment or change in
that at all," said the "Governator." (He did, however, reiterated
his opposition to San Francisco's granting marriage licenses to
same-sex couples, saying city officials should abide by the current
state law.)