Reaching Out to Move Ahead

President-elect Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation should be given the benefit of the doubt. It may advance gay equality. [read article]

Marjorie Christoffersen’s Freedom — and Ours

It may have been counterproductive for gays to boycott a California restaurant for one employee’s political stand. But it didn’t ‘silence’ anyone or violate their rights. [read article]

Marriage or Mirage?

Putting gay marriage on the District of Columbia's agenda in January would be premature. First we need to build a more robust level of popular support. [read article]

Think National, but Act Local

There’s talk of a national march on Washington for same-sex marriage. Actually, demonstrations at the state level are more likely to be effective. [read article]

Mr. Claus’s Christmas Letter—2008

’Twas just another Christmas season for Santa. Well, except for the gay elves who insisted on marrying. [read article]

Sean Penn’s Blind Spot

Harvey Milk would have understood, as the actor who so movingly portrays him apparently does not, that gay rights are human rights — whether at home or in Cuba or Venezuela. [read article]

Losing California

Though the close margin showed how far we’ve come, the loss on Prop. 8 underscores how unequal gay relationships remain in the minds of straight America. [read article]

Far from the Finish Line

Prop. 8’s repeal of gay marriage in California was far from the worst thing that has happened to gays lately. It should serve to remind us that we have far to go. [read article]

Leading from Below

Professionalizing the gay-rights movement is fine—but only as long as it doesn’t lull ordinary gay folks into outsourcing the personal activism that matters most. [read article]

Are Democrats Useless?

On the military in Washington and on marriage in New York state, Democrats are showing signs of punting on gay rights. When will we learn to hold them accountable? [read article]

Boycotts that Backfire

Boycotting organizations merely because someone we disagree with works there courts backlash, isn’t effective, and will lead companies to suppress gay activism in their ranks. [read article]

World AIDS Day: A Dissent

It’s important to fight the AIDS epidemic overseas. But too many gay, and straight, Americans are losing touch with the continuing crisis at home. [read article]

The Election Turned a Corner. Can We?

The 2008 election seemed to augur that culture-war politics is on the wane—and that the civil-rights model has outlived its usefulness for gays. [read article]

Much to Be Thankful For

Even as we protest marriage setbacks in 2008, gay Americans—like all Americans—need to remember to count our abundant blessings. [read article]

Learning from Obama

Barack Obama’s historic victory points the way forward. The gay rights movement needs to wrap itself in faith, flag, and family—not in the mantle of oppression. [read article]

The Long-Term Strategy

After Prop 8, now what? Tell our stories, instead of denouncing vague ‘discrimination’ and charging our opponents with bigotry. And exploit the advantage of time. [read article]

Dobson v. Warren (2)

Posted on January 4, 2009

Better late than never, a friend points out this "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America," published in October by James Dobson's Focus on the Family, and fairly broadly criticized at the time.

It's long and hysterical—another sign of how beleaguered the hard-core Christian Right is feeling. Still more revealing, I count 18 paragraphs on homosexuality and gay marriage, versus four on abortion (aka, from a pro-life point of view, murder of babies). I found no instances of the word "divorce." "Adultery"? You gotta be kidding.

This is the kind of anti-gay obsessiveness and upside-down prioritizing that Rick Warren and others of his ilk and generation are moving away from. The more I think about Obama's choice of Warren to lead the inaugural prayer, the more I like it. Culturally, the moment is right to reach out to reachable evangelicals and marginalize the hysterics and obsessives who have all but monopolized their movement. The cultural left doesn't understand the difference between Warren and Dobson, but evangelicals sure will. And they'll know Obama and Warren are publicly declaring Dobsonism obsolete.

-- by Jonathan Rauch

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Farewell to a Dismal Year

Posted on December 31, 2008

Adieu to 2008, a wretched year for gays. Voters banned same-sex marriage in Florida, Arizona and — most painfully — California, one of the few states where gays could legally wed. Arkansas banned adoptions by gay couples.

In every state where the populace has been able to vote on the issue of marriage equality, they've rejected it.

But fear not; our LGBT national political organizations weren't lazy. They put endless effort into raising funds and donating labor to get out the vote for Obama. That this meant an historically high turnout by minority voters who overwhelmingly voted to strip gay people of legal equality is no matter — we have the chosen one!!! Clap your hands and dance for joy!!!

And for our electoral defeat in California, blame the Mormons, a politically correct protest target. (And for gosh sake, never mention the pro Prop 8 robocall quoting Obama stating his faith-based opposition to letting gays marry.)

Only weeks away from the chosen one's inauguration, he's proved his mettle by putting repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" on indefinite hold and honoring an evangelical champion of rolling back of our right to equality. Not reason to celebrate, you claim? Party pooper!

As for 2009, we may see a (thankfully) toothless federal hate crimes bill, but the long awaited Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is sure to be impaled by activists' demands that it include cross dressing at work. Only in fantasyland are newly elected purple state Democrats in Congress going to go for that.

But hey, several LGBT Democratic activists have been or soon will be rewarded with mid-level administrative positions in one or another of Washington's rapidly expanding alphabet bureaucracies. Deliverance is nigh!

And a happy and joyous New Year to all!

-- by Stephen H. Miller

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Proposition 8: What Went Wrong? Plenty

Posted on December 30, 2008

Here's an interesting postmortem on the failed campaign to defeat California's Proposition 8, which rolled back marriage equality by placing a ban on same-sex marriage into the Golden State's constitution. What went wrong? A lot, apparently, including bland, focus-group-generated messaging.

Other insider critiques have noted a decentralized campaign structure that insisted on consensus among a group leadership, thus playing into the left's deference to anti-hierarchical organization but leaving no one with ultimate "buck stops here" responsibility — and an organization that was in no sense nimble, and unable to respond to rapidly changing developments on the ground.

More on what went wrong can be found here.

-- by Stephen H. Miller

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James Dobson He Ain't

Posted on December 20, 2008

My mind boggled when a friend assured me the other day that Rick Warren is James Dobson with a friendlier face. HRC doesn't go quite that far, but it does say this: "Rev. Warren cannot name a single theological issue that he and vehemently, anti-gay theologian [sic...Dobson is a psychologist; should HRC know this?] James Dobson disagree on."

True, Warren is a transitional figure, hardly what gay people would call enlightened. But he is no Dobson or Wildmon or Robertson or Falwell. He has tried to move the evangelical movement away from politics. He thinks too little about homosexuality, instead of obsessing on it. By mostly ignoring homosexuality, he puts it in reasonable proportion to other (as he sees it) sins—and, with the religious right, mere proportionality is half the battle.

It's worth actually reading the BeliefNet interview which has become the locus classicus for those who call Warren a hater. He calls same-sex marriage a redefinition on the same order as adult-child marriage. Obtuse, to say the least. He also says, "Civil unions are not a civil right." Meaning, he explains, that the constitution doesn't mandate them.

But he also says he does not oppose California's domestic partner law (which is a civil union law, whatever the statutory name). And he says it's a "no brainer" that divorce is a bigger threat to family than gay marriage. And that the reason gay marriage gets so much more attention than divorce is because "we always love to talk about other [people's] sins more than ours."

Of course he is an evangelical preacher and he does think that homosexual relations are a sin which should not be dignified with public sanction. But he represents a major step forward over the generation before him (as the generation after him is better still). I hope that, beneath the denunciations, the folks on our side understand this.

-- by Jonathan Rauch

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