Gay Americans see trouble ahead

Gay Americans say they are hurt, bewildered and confused about what they see as a powerful outpouring of anti-gay sentiment. Some are reacting by renewing efforts to change public sentiment while others are retreating.

“It has been a severe blow to many people. There has been a lot of grief and heartache,” said the Rev. Jay McNell, whose Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas ignited controversy when it recently ordained a lesbian elder.

“It reminds me of the civil-rights days when we saw discrimination against African-Americans,” he said. (source)

Heartache. I think that is a good word for what a lot of us are feeling. I’m starting to realize that there are a lot of people who are feeling bewildered and disenfranchised right now. I was talking to a coworker this morning about some volunteer work she is doing in her town, on one of the town’s committees. It’s basically Democrat versus Republican, even in the committee she is in. She’s tired of it and, as an Independent, she’s tired of being put in a position of taking sides and constantly defending her position.

And we live in a “liberal” Blue state! In the same article quoted above, a section reads:

Here in America’s heartland, LeAnne, a stay-at-home mom, has taken down the colorful gay-pride windsock that once flew from her front stoop.

Elsewhere in Kansas, a public school administrator has fresh worries about being fired despite 19 years of tenure.

And a veteran fundraiser for a religious charity in Missouri fears a backlash if anyone found out she was raising two children with another woman.

This is the America of George W. Bush. This is “compassionate conservativism”. In 36 states, you can still be fired for being gay. That’s a fact. But, being able to legally fire someone for being gay and actually doing it are two different things. In parallel with that you have people who realize that yes, they could be fired for being gay, but until recently, most probably felt that it would not likely happen.

Now, people are starting to be low key out of fear of retaliation, and not just at work. I am “out” to people. Not necessarily by choice. I don’t believe I’m flamboyant, but have been told that me trying to “act straight” is a point in futility. So, I just try to be me. But even in my liberal state of Connecticut, I wouldn’t do anything around my house to advertise that I may be gay, such as displaying a rainbow anything. Why? Not because I’m ashamed or anything like that. I’m very aware that some of my neighbors voted for Bush, judging from the Bush/Cheney signs in their front yards. Why invite unfortunate things, such as vandalism to my home? But the real issue is this; the fact that I’m even giving it a second thought and thinking through my actions shows the mental state of the America we live in today.

This is where America is now. I realize that what happened at work with my friend is not isolated. There are three sides in this country right now: the conservative right, the liberal left, and the rest of us who are ducking for cover. And if you are a gay American, there are a lot of people who have you in their cross hairs.

Buck conveyed my feelings about America exactly on his blog, Postcards from Nowhere:

Is the United States of America really worth all this grief? Can things change without, unfortunately a new Revolution? I’m not so sure anymore. It seems that the United States is more and more setting itself up to be a marginal rogue state much like the USSR in the 60s, 70s and 80s. We’re too big, too powerful and much too dangerous to ignore but we also have no respect for human rights, fairness, tolerance, or even our own Constitution.

With every victory we achieve, I find myself thinking, “Oh crap! What’s going to happen now? How big will the bashlash be?” We now have full legal marriage for gay couples in Massachusetts. Does anyone really feel that we came out ahead? If you do, perhaps you should ask the gay couples in one of the eleven states that passed constitutional amendments against gay marriage how they feel. And, if it is indeed full-fledged legal marriage, why isn’t the Federal Government recognizing the marriages of Massachusetts as such? I doubt that the IRS will allow a gay couple who lives in and was married in Massachusetts file a joint federal tax return. So much for “full faith and credit”.

We live in a time where we view it as a victory that the United States Supreme Court refused to hear arguments on the decision passed in Massachusetts by the Supreme Judicial Court allowing gay couples to marry in that state. I suppose we view it as a victory that they didn’t want to touch it for fear of reversing it because we are so shell-shocked over what we lost in the last election.

There’s a great irony here. Opponents of gay marriage say that it was “activist judges” who overstepped their authority in Massachusetts by demanding that anything less than marriage was not equal. It is those same opponents who are disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t step in to intervene (or become activist judges, if you will) and reverse the decision of the “activist judges”. I guess you aren’t an activist judge if you rule according to their wishes.

Should we be like Neo and all the other people in The Matrix and be good citizens (read, keep your mouth shut, go to work, come home, have dinner, watch mindless TV, go to bed, repeat it all again the next day but never EVER say anything against THE ESTABLISHMENT)?

Do we now live in an America where making waves in the form of free speech could cause you serious personal consequences?