Many have been talking about renewing the left's focus on sexuality; that's wonderful but I'd like to remind everyone that this is a bigger fight than just a gay right's fight. I'd like to start by pointing out something rather that might sound rather trivial; the issue at stake in California is not gay marriage but same sex marriage. Not everyone who wants to get married to someone of the same sex is gay; some are bisexual, some may identify as largely straight but due to the circumstances of their lives find themselves in a relationship with someone of the same gender for whatever emotional reasons. The point is that prop eight is not solely a "Gay" rights issue, it's a sexuality rights issue.
Some of us believe that oppression of gays and lesbians is simply part of a larger patriarchal/compulsory monogamous/Gender=biological sex complex that imposes sexualities and gender identities on people they may not want. It's called the queer movement. We in it challenge assumptions relating to gender and sexuality. We believe that all people should be free to craft their own gender and sexual identities free from discrimination and prejudice. It's not just about GLBT rights; it's also about the rights of gender queers ( who may not identify as having a specific masculine or femine gender) it's about the rights of fetishists and BDSM practioners, it's about sexual fluidity and the idea that not everyone can capture their gender and sexual identities with a single label, or even with many labels. We call all of those with marginalized sexual and gender identities queer.
You don't have to be queer yourself to help us (though some would argue everyone's a little bit queer.) You just have to challenge your own ideas about how people should and want to live their lives. Ultimately it's about a right to choose a path for yourself. It’s time to create a new revolution as grand and sweeping as the civil rights movement, a movement to recognising the possibilities of sexual and gender diversity. As a gay man I urge you to recognise that the oppression of gay men, while just as horrendous as other forms of queer oppression, is just like the part of the iceberg you see. Everyday countless people are oppressed because of their sexual and gender identities.
Viva la queer revolution I guess.