I'm heading down the Victory Fund's brunch this morning. The speakers are Rep. Jared Polis and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Polis will get his first chance to vote on LGBT legislation in the House when the Hate Crimes bill hits the floor in the next couple weeks. Chris Quinn was just at the press conference marking the introduction of New York's same-sex marriage legislation.
Losing Proposition 8 was, no doubt, a tough blow for the gay community and our allies. But, man, we've bounced back more energized than ever. Very good things are happening for us. Not so fun on the other side.
In today's column, Frank Rich captures the demise of the anti-gay forces in the U.S. This new reality is epitomized by the ridiculous video, "Gathering Storm," which has as Frank notes, become an "Internet camp classic":
Yet easy to mock as “Gathering Storm” may be, it nonetheless bookmarks a historic turning point in the demise of America’s anti-gay movement. (If you haven't seen it, watch the clip in the context of Colbert's take on the issue.He deconctructs Maggie Gallagher's faux group, National Organization for Marriage, and notes the changing views of once-rabid homophobes like Dr. Laura and even Rick Warren. Maggie doesn't have many friends on her side anymore.
What gives the ad its symbolic significance is not just that it’s idiotic but that its release was the only loud protest anywhere in America to the news that same-sex marriage had been legalized in Iowa and Vermont. If it advances any message, it’s mainly that homophobic activism is ever more depopulated and isolated as well as brain-dead.
And, he quotes John:
CNN’s weekly press critique, “Reliable Sources,” inquired why. The gay blogger John Aravosis suggested that many Americans are more worried about their mortgages than their neighbors’ private lives. Besides, Aravosis said, there are “only so many news stories you can do showing guys in tuxes.”John's post on that interview is here
Times they are a changin'...and changin' fast according to Nate Silver:
As the polls attest, the majority of Americans who support civil unions for gay couples has been steadily growing. Younger voters are fine with marriage. Generational changeover will seal the deal. Crunching all the numbers, the poll maven Nate Silver sees same-sex marriage achieving majority support “at some point in the 2010s.”Here's what Nate wrote in the post to which Rich linked:
Support for gay marriage, however, is strongly generational. In a CBS news poll conducted last month, 64 percent of voters aged 18-45 supported either gay marriage or civil unions, but only 45 percent of voters aged 65 and up did. Civil unions have already achieved the support of an outright majority of Americans, and as those older voters are replaced by younger ones, the smart money is that gay marriage will reach majority status too at some point in the 2010's.In my world, if Nate says it, it's bankable.
We still have a lot of work to do, no doubt. But, time is on our side.
