It has taken me a long time to comprehend my feelings on Warrengate. I do not like it. I think there were many better choices. But I am not outraged. I am sorry. I am outraged at even the insinuation that I am a bigot. I understand that others are outraged, that others were hurt deeply. I tried to feel that. Honestly, I just do not care who does the invocation.
It is not that the cause of equality for homosexuals does not matter to me. It does, a lot. I attended an all boys boarding school for two years of my life. Not exactly a pleasant place for a homosexual. I was such a reactionary activists on the issue that I was pulled aside by the dean repeatedly to be told to "cool it." I was shunned by some students, scorned by some others. But there was a moment that kept me going. It was when the only openly gay student at the school pulled me aside. It was when he told me of the fear he lived with. How it felt to be surrounded by people that might never accept him. He thanked me, and that was enough to make up for the small sacrifice I had made. As a straight person, it would have been easier to just avoid the issue. But as a dormitory representative, I felt an obligation to stand up for anyone who lived in a sate of fear at the school.
To me, the invocation does not feel important. Notice, I did not see it is not important, but that it does not feel important. Yes, Warren is a bigot. No I do not want a bigot giving the invocation. I do not want any kind of bigot, racists, sexists, or homophobic. Yes there would be more outrage if it were a racists. Yes, that is a statement about this society. And yes, these opinions should be made loud and clear to the world. And we need far more organization to these outcries.
I believe Warren is a bigot. He believes homosexuality is wrong. He cares not about protecting the sanctity of marriage, but wishes to eradicate what he sees to be a cancer on society. When he compared homosexual marriage to pedophilia, he made that clear. No one supports pedophilia. In fact, we lock you the fuck up for it. So he cannot say that he is fine with homosexuals if he believes they are equivalent to pedophiles. He represents a section of society that has created many innocent victims.
There is another section of homophobic society. This section is far more subtle. This section may have good intentions. Then again, they might not. And Obama falls in this category. These are the segregationists. The civil union’ers. The ones that want to secure "rights" for homosexuals under a "separate but equal" system. No doubt about it, this is our version of segregation. The only difference between this and the segregation of public schools is that there was a physical structure separating, a tangible separation. But civil unions are the creation of a separate institution designed to afford people equal rights. Separate is unequal.
And yes. Homosexuals knew that when they supported Obama. And no, that is not a reason for anyone to keep their hurt over the Warren decision to themselves.
Some, including myself, have argued that this is an opportunity to bring our opponents to the table. Yes, we should bring our opponents to the table. Yes we should be communicating with them a lot more than we currently do. We should have a vigorous debate. Communication is the most powerful tool that the just have in the war against intolerance. Many would argue that providing Warren this opportunity sends a signal to the masses that disagree with us. Others would argue that having him at the inauguration does nothing to bring him to the table. That he should be brought in on a policy debate, not on a ceremony to celebrate the start of this new Presidency. What we all agree upon, is that we should bring our opponents to the table. We disagree about what steps we should take to make that happen. I have seen many people defending the Warren decision attack others about this. We need not treat others as if they do not understand what it means to be a President of all people. We all want to bring our political opponents in, we differ on how to do it.
We also need not accuse our fellow kosacks of bigotry. Many of the people that support this decision care deeply about the cause of gay rights. Many of them believe that this step, followed by many more, will help us find progress. Many of these people have worked and sacrificed for the cause of gay rights. The fact that they believe this move might help us move forward on these issues is not a cause to disrespect them.
I myself have written in defense of the decision. For some time, I sat silently forming my view. I read through diary after diary and thread after thread. Like I said, I tried to feel outraged. I thought of the conditions many homosexuals are forced or pressured into living under. I thought of my friend Alex from boarding school. But, as I said earlier, hard as I tried I could not bring myself to give a crap who gives the invocation. I started getting involved in the discussion. Much of what pushed me to get involved was the use of the word "bigot." Sometimes it was not used, but insinuated. In one instance, DHinMI, while defending himself, (or is it herself?) brought up work done against Proposal 2 in Michigan in 2004 only to be further attacked. Why would someone attack DHinMI over this? Because it failed. So therefore, DHinMI clearly hates gay people and brought the proposal down from the inside. An evil and distasteful move, no doubt, but damned smart.
Instances like this one, led me to start writing about the possible benefits to this decision. I wrote about bringing our opponents to the table. I wrote about how this compares to meeting with leaders like Ahmadinejad. I wrote about how we need to be better about including our opponents than the Republicans were, how it is easy to talk of unity and harder to act. I had hesitations about these arguments, but this is a place of discussion where holding back helps no one. Mostly, my writing was followed up by people trying to have a real conversation. Yet every day, threads and diaries were littered with attacks.
Every day, one side called the other bigots. The other side yelled, "Weren’t you fucking listening during the election. Barack said he bring our opponents in!" Back and forth, far less real debate than attacks and ridicule. Sadly, not too surprising.
Yet real conversation is not what is most lacking. What is most lacking is a way forward. Obama has invited Warren, so that decision is pretty much done with. So how do we move forward?
As a community organizer, I know that there is nothing more powerful, nothing with more potential than the raw emotions of involved citizens. Those emotions may vary, but whether fear, anger, excitement, or pain, an emotional response is crucial. There is plenty of raw emotion here. I find no one seems to be actively trying to harness it, or if they are it is being drowned out. All we need is organization.
There are many things we can do. And this is how we can fight back against the viciousness here that has surrounded the debate. We can unite and work together towards goals we all desire. We can make sure that the nation knows that we are not just upset, we are active.