Insight du jour: It Is About Civil Rights

This post grew out of a comment that I left at Pam's House Blend on the lessons of the DADT repeal fight.

One thing we've missed in the whole DADT, DOMA, ENDA, etc. series of gripe sessions has been the kind of man we're dealing with in this president. It occurs to me that, given Obama's history as a candidate and his background in community organizing, gay activism -- and I mean real activism, GetEqual, Dan Choi, SLDN, all of us who have pushed -- have been part of the strategy.

Obama is an extraordinarily intelligent and well-educated man who earned his chops as a community organizer. That's the kind of thinking that we haven't paid enough attention to. We wanted a leader, but his performance so far has not been as the kind of leader who says "follow me" but one who says "march with me." I think we've misread him in some essential and very important ways, and I also think that we've allowed ourselves to move into the realm of "tell us what to do" rather than taking the reins ourselves. Maybe his one mistake -- and I'm not sure I can really call it a mistake -- is in expecting us to be, not as smart as he is, but more quick on the uptake than we have been.

I think the posts I've seen congratulating those who did the pushing come close to the point without ever identifying it: Obama has said "push me" and "hold our feet to the fire" and that's exactly what he meant -- he's still building that grassroots movement that he started during his campaign. And I suspect very strongly that he really does see our fight for equality in the same terms as the Black Civil Rights movement, and understands, as we are beginning to understand, the tactics and methods that are necessary to make it work: not only lobbying and the courts, but lobbying the people at large, if I can call it that: demonstrations and large gestures designed to make the news.

One thing that strikes me as I read through the "mainstream" blogs and the non-gay press is how much this particular episode has penetrated the awareness of the non-gay world. (And let's be honest here: gay issues are not on most people's radar, especially now that they have so much else to worry about.) And that's a big part of success: grabbing headlines and keeping them is a necessity, and I think Obama probably deserves as much credit for our success on that score as Robin McGehee and Dan Choi: he gave us no alternative. The result is that we are now a regular part of the news. (And I have to give credit to Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, Pete LaBarbera and the other usual suspects for helping us stay there.)

At this point, my respect for the president has gone up a couple of notches, and I'm sitting here saying "Mr. President? I think I got it -- finally."