Many of our "gay leadership" are too busy patting their own backs, protecting their own turf and indulging their egotistical militancy. As a result, they can't see the forest for the trees. Which, in this matter means they can't see that overall, we're winning this "war" and that what is needed is not more militancy, but competent, knowledgeable presentation of our case to everyone who will listen who(get a clue)will mostly NOT be at high profile political fund raiser ga(y)las (pun intended).
They can start by accepting the reality that our society needs a bit more time to absorb us equally. Civil Unions could have been enuf for awhile. They were being accepted with surprising equanimity. Even the major homophobe James Dobson gave us that much. Later, when the sky didn't fall and God didn't zap anyone and people had gotten accustomed to the idea, the marriage issue might have come more smoothly. But we gotta have it ALL, NOW, non-acceptance of delayed gratification being something many in the gay community are all too familiar with.
Yes, there is some increase in anti-gay violence. Could we possibly believe we could get away with upsetting the status quo without a backlash?! The blacks paid dearly for their civil rights and gained much tho they still struggle with residual racism. Why should we think we can escape the price of equality, part of which is patience and an unwillingness to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
As for Obama and Warren.....yeah, it's hard to take at first reaction. It feels like a blatant betrayal, but it really does challenge us to some critical thought. Let's take another look at it. Obama has shown a keen sense of political strategy thus far and I sense a strategy at work with the Warren selection. Aside from the small political gain of throwing a bone to the Religious Right, Obama has to have known the public uproar the Warren selection would have caused and the spotlight it would shine on the Religious Right's ignorance, intolerance and yes, BIGOTRY, all of which Warren has obligingly displayed. Then, as Obama mentions us favorably in his inaugural speech as he very likely will, that bigotry will be sitting in socially and politically enforced silence. The symbolism will be profound; bigotry humbled in the face of the winner in a very real "culture war"!! I suspect Obama knows exactly what he's doing and Warren is falling for it.
I urge members of the gay community to keep one eye on the steadily growing forest while we fight the lesser brushfires with intelligently selected fire fighting strategy of our own.