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.