Gay philanthropist Bruce Bastian of Utah has donated $70,000 to the National Equality March in D.C. and plans to contribute another $30,000 for the event because he strongly believes it will jump-start the LGBT rights movement.
Jump-start the LGBT rights movement? Nothing will jump-start it like two victories in Maine and Washington, and nothing will deflate it like two more defeats in November. Remember the huge letdown after Prop 8? Or are our attention spans really that short?
I appreciate the passion for the March but it is being foolishly misdirected. Not only are its goals ill-concieved and not thought through, but it’s slated for October 11 when Congress will not be in recess and President Obama will be out of town.
Frankly, this whole March idea may be a great ego boost for the organizers, but it’s incredibly selfish considering the needs of LGBT people who face ballot initiatives right now aimed at stripping them and their families of basic rights. That $130,000 can make a huge difference in those fights, not on the grassy lawn of the Mall while everyone else is out of town.
You know what this is? This is another "initiative" by the very people who lost on Prop 8 and have done nothing to move repeal of DOMA and DADT in the past fifteen years. It's the same people who have hired "political consultants" who adivised them to wait on another California marriage referendum until 2012, just the way they advised them not to include any gay people in their ads or ever mention the phrase "gay marriage." (I realize Jerrold Nadler has introduced legislation to repeal DOMA -- about half and hour ago, if my clock is right -- and I'm sure HRC will be crowing about it. Unless they start off by gnashing their teeth and screaming "too soon!" the way Barney Frank is doing. Remember what I've said before: you can't sit back and wait -- you have to keep pushing.)
As far as the "Equality March" is concerned, it will be seen as empty posturing -- which it is. Anyone with any sense of history will probably come to the same conclusion I came to a while ago: the time for this kind of massive, organized demonstration is past. We don't do that any more in this country. Even the teabaggers couldn't pull it off, and their ranks are beyond crazy enough to do it. Even in the mass protest heyday of the 1970s and '80s, our effectiveness was based on smaller, localized actions. That's still where we're most effective -- just take a look at some of the places that have gay-inclusive civil rights laws -- I men, Cincinnati? Peoria? If we keep moving on those front, the federal government will eventually catch up. Eventually.
But marching on Washington on everyone's day off? Why?
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