From www.politico.com
Obama called out on gay rights
During the annual Gay Pride march in Paris on Saturday, protesters took to the streets waving placards of President Barack Obama.
Organizers estimated 700,000 people participated in the event, which came 40 years after the famous New York gay-rights uprising at the Stonewall Inn. American Singer Liza Minnelli was on hand to address the crowds. Obama, who had promised during the campaign to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," has yet to push Congress for this, and has disappointed some advocates by the speed with which he's moved on other gay-rights initiatives.
I was 22 in 1969 when the revolution began. I had just graduated from my college seminary and was about to enter the last phase of my studies for the RC priesthood when I entered the major seminary that September.
I knew from an early age that I was different from most other boys mainly because I was attracted to most other boys. Even though I was sexually active through my teen years, it wasn't until I was around 20 0r 21 that I finally admitted (to myself) that I was gay. The curious thing though is that I have no recollection of being aware of the Stonewall riots at the time. I suppose it was because the story got almost no play in either the print or TV media. It was still "The love that dare not speak its name".
I was ordained a deacon in 1972 and served in two different parishes until the Church and I came to a mutual parting of the ways. During that time, I baptized dozens of babies, preached dozens of homilies and distributed hundreds of communions. But deep down I knew the real reason for becoming a priest. The Church was the safest place for a gay man to hide undetected by cloaking himself in the mantle of holiness and celibacy. I had gay classmates and knew gay priests but the straight clergy vastly outnumbered the gay clergy contrary to recent events and scandals within the Church. And the gay clergy were gay, not pedophiles. That was a whole other issue. And those we knew about were widely shunned by the rest of us.
It wasn't until some years later after I had left the Church that I realized that the gay revolution which began 40 years ago tonight in a Mafia-run bar for gays and transvestites was also the catalyst for my personal revolution. I knew that I didn't want to live a lie and that I didn't want to live alone, surviving on one night stands and furtive trysts. So when I got out in 1973, I came out. But it was still early days for the gay movement for equality, rights and acceptance. You could still get fired from your job for being gay. You could still be refused an apartment for rent for being gay. And you still had to endure the verbal taunts and sometimes the threats of actual physical violence.
I never in my wildest imaginings thought that there would come a time in America when we would not only find acceptance but that there would actually be places in this country where a gay or lesbian couple could be joined in either marriage or civil union. My partner of 29 years this September and I are fortunate enough to live in one of those states. But if truth be told, I don't need a formal recognition of our relationship by any civil or religious authority. Just give us all the same rights, benefits and privileges that those institutions endow straight couples with.
Like many other LGBT Americans, I was heartened by Obama's including us in his agenda when he ran for the presidency. But I am also a realist and know that even though more and more of our straight fellow citizens support our call for equal rights, the politicians are still gun-shy of correcting the injustice of it all. I hope the President gets the message loud and clear when he meets tomorrow with a couple of hundred gay rights supporters in the White House. We know he's got a lot on his plate at the moment. But he has the wind of public support at his back right now and must seize this moment to fulfill the promises made last year.