New Decade, New Evolutions

I was heartened by Obama's seeming change of heart when he eluded to potential future support for marriage equality by saying his views were "evolving." First of all, evolution is a good thing. It involves changes that help one survive. If Obama is making the political calculation that support for full equality for LGBT Americans in what some consider the final frontier for that equality -equal marriage rights - is good for his political career and survival, that is an excellent sign. We are approaching a tipping point where the gradual consensus of political opinion is shifting. Rather than being out in front of that wave, Obama has been more cautious, so I take his change of heart as a bellwether indicator that the nation is beginning to realize some very old wisdom. That is, we need to judge people by the content of their character rather than any superficial qualities like their age, race, religion, political or sexual orientation. Clearly, Obama has the feel-good wind at his back for the long-awaited repeal of DADT. And that decision came in part from the report that said most service people do not have an issue with serving with gay colleagues. Thank you, Millenials. Your righteous indifference to this issue -that being gay says nothing about one's ability to serve and also to marry or do anything else for that matter -will eventually win the day.

It feels so good to know discrimination is on it's way out of the military... And that it will eventually find it's way out of our civil marital laws. May the Prop 8 case be tossed out for lack of standing... As it cannot be true that people are harmed in any way when more loving couples are allowed to marry.

May this next decade bring us more equality, more respect and more dignity as we all as human beings continue to evolve in our understanding of each other. Thank you, Obama, for your willingness to evolve. May the nation continue to evolve with us.

[Note: Written on an airline on an iPad with WiFi and major turbulence. Let me add one more New Year's wish... Let this plane fly smoothly and land us all safely!]

DADT: Do A Dance Tonight!

Sometimes we do the right thing and...sometimes the US Senate does too. Today was one of those days, and I am honored to be just a little bit more equal today. I am proud of all the Senators who voted for this, including Senator Burr of NC who turned himself around after some persuasion with facts and the recent military report. This is a milestone day not just for LGBT people but for this country in affirming the principle of equal opportunity. Let DADT fade into the past and become known as an acronym for other things..like Do A Dance Tonight! This is how many of us will be celebrating...

There's No Standing on the Side of Hate

As a Unitarian Universalist, I'm supportive of our campaign called "Standing on the Side of Love." When it comes to issues like marriage equality for all couples, to me it means that we inform our thoughts and actions from a place of love, compassion and understanding of people we may not initially understand. Of course, the use of the term "side" suggests that there is another, opposite way, which is the side of hate, fear, and a lack of willingness to even try to understand who gay people are, why we are gay, and our simple desire to be treated as the equal and deserving people we are. Take for instance those who seek to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry, as is the case with proponents of Prop 8 in my childhood home state of California. We might say that they are standing on the side of H8.

As a lover of words and puns, I can't resist another twist on the word "standing." In addition to taking a stand, "standing" is a legal word which means a person has a genuine or legitimate interest in doing something-- like say appealing a court case. Article III, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution's definition of standing is that the appellates must have, as an attorney-on-the-side-of-love David Boies states, a "personal, concrete, particularized injury." How could anyone's marriage to anyone else possibly injure any other couple or group? I would love to see someone try to prove that in a court of law! In my opinion, the most likely and beautiful outcome of the case is that they throw the case out because H8 proponents have no standing. Their hate alone gives them no standing. If this happens, Judge Walkers' unconstitutional ruling will stand, allowing gay couples to marry again in CA.

Check out the NCLR's legal analysis here and more on standing here...
if you can possibly stand it!