CrazyDrumGuy

A Glimmer of Hope

There isn’t very much to be pleased with this morning in Maine, as voters once again have decided that “all men are created equal” is a nice idea, in theory, as long as  the people they don’t like don’t count. But Daily Kos’ Bill in Portland Maine, whose plans for life with his partner have dramatically changed because of yesterday’s vote, finds a glimmer of hope amidst all the hate and bigotry of Maine’s Question 1:

This morning the words of America’s first openly-gay Episcopal Bishop, V. Gene Robinson—who has endured bigotry of the worst kind, including an assassination attempt—are soothing my savage manboobs. Robinson visited Portland several weeks ago to talk about Question 1. He raised the all-too-real possibility that things wouldn’t go our way this time. And now that the results are in and the vote didn’t go our way, his words are helping me this morning. A lot.

He said that we’ve already won this fight, it’s just a question of timing. Here’s what he means. Look at this result from last night, courtesy of Adam Bink at Open Left. It is the only thing I’ve shed tears over this morning, and they are happy ones:

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Final numbers are in from [University of Maine]-Orono campus- 81% No, 19% Yes.
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A ‘No’ vote was a vote to keep the same-sex marriage law in place. Look at that: 81 percent No, 19 percent Yes. That’s the future of gay rights in America. It’s coming. It’s on our doorstep. It’s just a matter of time. All Schubert-Flint and NOM and the Catholic church did last night was kick the can down the road a bit. As Bishop Robinson said:

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“We’re in this for the long haul. Keep your energy up and your focus clear. We can be in it for the long haul because we know how this is gonna end: full equality.”
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Or, to quote Dan Savage:

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“It’s like ‘Gay Survivor,’ we’re going to outlive, outlast, and outsmart the bigots.”
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Don’t think for a second that they don’t know it. And don’t think for a second that, despite their smiling faces this morning, it doesn’t haunt their dreams.

LGBT people, allies, and anyone who believes that all people really are created equal have plenty to be pissed off about today. It sucks that LGBT people across this country woke up today to see that, sorry, another group of people has voted away your rights, and it sucks even more to have to say, for what must seem like the millionth time, “Sorry, gay couples, keep waiting. You’ll get the same rights as the rest of us one of these days.”

Over the next few days, and weeks, and months, people and pundits will go over the “No on 1″ campaign with a fine-toothed comb to find that with a little more money, or a little more organization, or a little more (or, some might say, any) support from the White House and the Democratic establishment, supporters of equality could have won this fight. Maybe that’s true. But this battle is over, and the only thing to do now is to pick ourselves up and move on to the next one–because, with the forces of bigotry and hate emboldened by victory in Maine, there will be a next one–knowing that, despite our setbacks, we are on the right side of this fight.

So as we supporters of marriage equality lick our wounds from this defeat, we can be content in the knowledge that, as painful as it is to say, “keep waiting,” the day that all people really will be equal is coming.

11/4/09 12:39 pm | Comment (1) | Permalink | Tags: marriage equality, ME-Question 1