According to this article New York will become the next frontier in the gay marriage battle. This makes me nervous after such a horrible defeat. The other problem is how do we tackle this? How do average citizens get involved?
With political campaigns there is an obviously hierarchy where the candidate and and their campaign get people activated and organized. But a "movement" is so much more decentralized. There is no gay politburo. No one is elected or appointed to provide vision. Those who oppose gay marriage use church-based leadership and infrastructure for funding and organizing. As we saw in California the Mormon and Catholic churches were very effective and because the conservative PR machine is so well-tested they had excellent message discipline. Granted, it was a message of lies, but very effective lies nonetheless.The good guys, by contrast were the victims of poor leadership and mixed, defensive messaging.
I'm still recovering from this defeat. It's devastating. I feel awful days later. I feel like a true second class citizen in my own country. My heart is broken and I feel powerless. I know that is not true. I know that history is on our side. It just moves slower than we would like.
But as the movement hits New York, so close to home, what can I do? What should I do? Maybe I should do nothing and hope that the new Democratically-controlled state senate does the right thing. With campaigns, I often say I just have to do my part. In a case like this, I need to figure out what is my part.
When you figure it out, let me know and I'll do mine.
Posted by: ceci | November 09, 2008 at 07:52 AM