The Fight Is Not Won

from Truth Wins Out:

A day after constitutional bans on marriage for gay people passed in three U.S. states, Kevin Ivers — formerly of the Log Cabin Republicans — writes:

I beg all of you with any energy left in you to wake up. I beg you to stop deluding yourselves about what it’s going to take to really change our situation in the United States. Stop believing promises and start demanding action. Stop scapegoating, and blaming ‘enemies’ and shifting responsibility for all our failures onto others, and take responsibility for everything we face. Stop living the reality show and start living in reality. And if you were active in this election cycle, don’t delude yourself into thinking that the fight is “won.” It is, in fact, almost completely lost as of this moment if you stand down now. Do more than just “know hope” — think different.

I’m not a fan of the Republican Party, but I agree with Ivers that the Democrats — and Barack Obama in particular — did too little to oppose the antigay marriage amendments in California, Arizona, and Florida.

Among pro-marriage, anti-amendment groups, outreach to African-American moderates and religious communities seems to have been inadequate. And gay people were virtually invisible in TV ads.

Members of sexual minority groups must stop waiting for benevolent leadership from above, and start asserting themselves.