Religious sheep are as enlightened as they will ever be. There is no cheese down that hole.

Marriage hadn’t been my issue, though I am now seeing the value in the dialogue surrounding it.

Thank you for pointing out the gays who still want to marginalize the drag queens or leather boys (etc.) who are so often shown in media to “front” for the movement.

Assimilation is a sorry and unhealthy substitute for acceptance (a word that grates on me, maybe “co-existance?” I really don’t give a fuck who you so magnanimously “accept”). Wearing Abercrombie while riding in the Wells Fargo float at Gay Pride is not even a cool statement, never mind activism.

The gay rights movement has become a marketable minority marriage rights campaign. I can’t help wonder if this will stunt our personal progress towards internalized self-love, a love that would include well placed outrage at wrongs done us.

As someone who got into a shouting match with a christian moron I can tell you that it is possible to physically hold back.

And…if you’re curious, yes I do have two gay/lesbian family members – an aunt who recently passed away, and a cousin who is married to a wonderful man (I wish I could be so lucky!).

Be well, and Happy New Year! – may it bring equality.

I am so fatigued by the compassion we’ve shown our oppressors that my own anger is no longer contained. We’ve tried carrots, it’s now time for sticks.

Walk softly and USE a big stick. The big stick is the courts. I feel our gay leaders failed miserably in leading the fight against Prop 8 because they used the compassion tactic. They also allowed the Prop 8 supporters to frame this as a religious/moral issue. You can’t can argue morals, right or wrong, with a church.

This IS a civil issue, as determined by the California Supreme Court earlier this year. That MAKES it a civil rights issue despite all of those who would like to co-opt this concept for their own purposes. And as we found, minority groups DON’T stick together for the greater good, they seem to step on others as easily as they’d been stepped on themselves. They are as hypocritical as those they accuse of discrimination.

This is why I say the biggest stick is the court. My only salve is placing my faith in the the state constitution which guarantees equal access to all. And anger is a good thing, and showing people that we can and will defend our turf is a good thing, too. It is time they fear us for a reason, not for their preachers fear-mongering.

Each and every ‘group’ that has denounced our progress in society has used exactly the same tactics that we need to use. No more MR. Nice Gay.

A word of caution to everyone: The religious right who supported Prop 8, Mormons and Catholics are basically in a moral jihad now against same-sex marriage. I must reiterate that police reports after police reports on suspected “gays lashing out” against these religious groups prove to be totally unfounded. Sure there is some heavy name calling, even some signs grabbed away from folks, but as far as the reports of those folks in the Castro molesting those Christians, like their Mormon underwear, its all magically made up. This is part of the ultimate plan for them to turn even moderate folks against homosexuals. If they can use these images and reports, it will make people scared of us. They did this with when blacks marched in the South. Propaganda is a wonderful too.

Be careful out there, and carry a video camera to document their lies.