Gay voters should blame themselves for Prop 8, not black Californians.
In part, Prop 8 failed because of inept LGBT leadership.
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By Marc Levine
Friday, September 05, 2008
Last week, I watched my senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivered what must have been the hardest speech to give that I have ever witnessed. Can we even imagine how difficult it must have been for her to go from hope and certainty in her future victory, to defeat and even derision in many quarters? Clinton knew she had to give the speech of her life under a scrutiny akin to that given to Caesar’s wife.
There was no doubt in my mind that she would lay to rest any questions of her loyalty and obliterate any attempts by the Republicans to drive a wedge of disunity through this campaign. I know what Hillary is capable of and I know that she is one of the most adept and brilliant people to run for our highest office. People always underestimate her. Well, even I underestimated her this time.
This is a speech that will be remembered. In the ultimate act of humility and grace, she told her supporters to ask themselves whether they were fighting just for her or for the beliefs she herself was fighting for. Don't make this about me was her message; I am only a link in a much larger chain. I cannot imagine that there are many in Clinton’s position who would be capable of laying aside their own egos to make such a declaration. I was proud and moved.
I felt for Clinton. I believed in her potential to be a great President of the United States. Let me be clear, I saw Barack Obama speak four years ago and rushed to call my sister to say I had just seen the next JFK. However, I thought that this year was Clinton’s time and his would come after. I supported Clinton until there was no way she could win. As I watched her speak and, more important, watched her speak to women, I finally understood why she mattered to me.
I have always felt a strong empathy with women. I do not know if this is a cliché about gay men or a truism. I recall being a young boy no more than 7 or 8 years old, trying to convince the other boys that women could be every bit the equal of men if given the opportunity and that they should allow the girls to play sports with them. Naturally, so many of my best friends were women. When Clinton spoke of the history of the fight for women’s rights, it resonated with me.
It took 72 years from the first convention on women’s rights, she reminded us, till women got the right to vote, and there is still so much more to go in the fight for equal pay for women.
I hope the time from the Stonewall Riots till marriage rights are afforded to everyone across our land will not be so long. Like women, our people have been oppressed across most of the world and for many centuries. It does not surprise me that so many of our community united behind Clinton. I applaud her campaign for hammering at that ceiling. To all my sisters, I congratulate you on the victory that Hillary's historic campaign represents.
So, in the spirit of Clinton’s words, if we embrace the struggle for equality for all, we have no choice but to fight now for the man who smashed at another portion of that proverbial ceiling. Obama’s candidacy is no less historic and the victory will be equally resounding evidence that the struggle for the rights of every person on our planet can be won. It took nearly 150 years from slavery to (I fervently hope) President Obama. Our struggles are the same and a victory for one is a victory for all.
One day, maybe in eight years, we will have a woman in the white house, and one day we will have an openly gay man or lesbian so serve—even a trans person, dare to dream. So now, I need to do all that I can to help Obama’s campaign. I call on everyone else from our community to do the same. We cannot afford to lose.
Marc Levine is an LGBT activist in Brooklyn. He can be reached in care of nybl@hx.com.
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