Notes On Virginia

Get used to this

Am I allowed to not like Rick Warren and not care about him at the same time? Because I am so over his saying grace at Obama’s inauguration.

Even so, Warren’s invocation is no fleeting honor. It’s essentially his own inauguration as the nation’s leading evangelical, one with the president’s ear. But evangelicals’ closeness to the new Obama administration doesn’t cancel out Obama’s own promises on gay rights.

Keep in mind that Obama began his push for the evangelical vote long before he even declared his candidacy, first in June 2006 at a forum of “progressive” evangelicals, then a few months later at Warren’s Saddleback Church itself. He piled up endorsement after influential endorsement from pastors ranging from civil rights icon Joseph Lowery (who is also praying in our names at the inauguration) to George W. Bush’s own spiritual advisor Kirbyjon Caldwell.

Guess how many of these guys support marriage equality? (Don’t strain yourself.)

President-elect Obama has no intention of distancing himself from anti-gay Christians:

What we have to do is create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.

His chief advisor David Axelrod drove the point home in case we missed it the first time:

“You have a conservative evangelical pastor who’s coming to participate in the inauguration of a progressive president,” Axelrod said from Chicago. “This is a healthy thing and a good thing for our country.”

Homophobes Will Be Homophobes. Will We Be Activists?

“Healthy” and “good.” See what we’re dealing with?

Still, I don’t give a damn what the homophobes think of me. Let them wail and rail till the Second Coming. Their private opinions should only become a concern when they start trotting them into our public laws. Which they do all the time.

Yet for some reason gay groups get hung up on the fact that homophobes are homophobic, as if it’s beneath us to dignify their lies with a response. Too bad for us those lies work.

When the Yes on 8 bigots lied that marriage equality will destroy heterosexual marriage and turn kids gay, did No on 8 refute their lies or present a positive view of same-sex relationships and families?

No. They said that if you vote for Prop 8 you’re a discriminator and unfair and not a very nice person at all. And you know where that strategy got us.

Yet our gay leadership (such as it is) keeps barreling onward with the same failed tactic of “Don’t engage, get outraged!” Human Rights Campaign executive director Joe Solmonese has made sure everyone knows that he’s quite upset about Rick Warren’s prayer. (Where was HRC during Prop 8 anyway?)

And Geoff Kors, head of Equality California, one of the groups behind the failed No on 8 campaign, is taking his ball and going home by refusing to go to Obama’s big party.

I guess people like Solmonese and Kors think that if they pout enough they can wish our opponents away. But I doubt that Obama loses any sleep because the gays are cranky about his new evangelical BFFs. After all, they have a choice in political parties; we don’t.

Make Obama Keep His Promises

There’s still room for hope, though. Both in Illinois and the U.S. Senate, Obama supported several LGBT civil rights bills like ENDA, and he’s made several ambitious promises on gay rights. More on that in a bit.

In his debut to the evangelical world back in June 2006, he went so far as to praise reason over faith:

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. … [I]f I seek to pass a law [based on my religious beliefs], I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will.

Christianity Today wasn’t too thrilled with that part.

Clearly, Barack Obama is genuinely sympathetic to our cause. Problem is, he shares the Democratic penchant for feeling everyone’s pain - especially the nigh unbearable agonies of powerful voting blocs.

So it’s probably pointless to get wound up about one bigot’s prayer, however inappropriate it may be.

Instead, let’s hold Obama to his promises. Getting him to deliver on any one of his promises would not only be a HUGE achievement for our side, but would also weaken religious conservatives’ arguments against us and help clear the way for marriage. And Obama seems willing to challenge right-wing arguments that go no further than “the Bible tells me so.”

Obama has promised to:

• Add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes laws
• Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (protecting LGBTs from employment discrimination)
• Repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act
• Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

I’m tired of losing. Our track record on marriage is abysmal. We obviously need some practice getting the voting public to support our issues.

So why not start with any of Obama’s promises, like ENDA (trans-inclusive this time), and just start winning for once? The fundies are going to come at us with the same old lies, so why not use these fights to figure out how to beat them for a change?

Why not win?