Since Kate Bornstein has just identified me as a curmudgeon, and I woke up with a stiff back, I feel the need to finally say something about this whole Equality March that’s happening in DC this weekend.
I suppose I don’t need to mention that I didn’t go.
I hate marches. I hate rallies and protests. Hate ’em. I’ve taken part in plenty of them – against CUNY funding cuts, against the RNC occupation of NYC, & I’ve even been to big gay marches on Washington, too (& a very long time ago, now).
But what bothered me about this one is the whole issue of putting pressure on Obama, who I think is under quite enough pressure, if you consider having to defend, again, social spending and The New Deal 80 years later enough pressure. He’s got – rather, we’ve got – two wars, a global leadership that refuses to believe homosexuality exists (see Iran), and the biggest bunch of dumbass right wing morons who prefer an electorate that doesn’t know medicare is a government program. It’s sheer stupidity he’s/we’re up against.
And now that I’m in the so-called heartland (which I say because Brooklyn is, as well, the heartland, but not seen that way by the majority), what I see is a lot of sophisticated LGBT people hanging out in the big coastal cities.
I am curious to hear what people thought might come out of this march, and whether or not it did. I did not, I’d like to point out, say a damn word for or against the march before it happened, because I don’t believe in raining on people’s parades, and if a groundswell did indeed happen – I don’t think it did – it’s because we are still out of touch. What we got was Obama delivering the message, to HRC of all groups, that we already know: this shit’s going to take time. If he doesn’t have our support on the umpteen other progressive issues – like, say, a public opion for health insurance – his own power will be muted and our goals will be impossible to reach.
Okay, done now. Tomorrow, perhaps, I will talk about the term “bio girl” and how much I hate it.
I haven’t said anything about the march, either (nor am I there). For the most part, I think it’s tremendous resources misapplied wholesale. The amount of money spent by organizers and attendees could fund a TON of local initiatives that would have more immediate effects.
“Bio girl” is pretty bad. Almost as bad (and as stupid) as “real girl.”
I see your point. Still, I think it’s worthwhile to have some discontented noises from what passes for the “left” in this country. Maybe then the birthers and the people who don’t know that their medicare is a government program will start to realize that Obama is really a moderate centrist.