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What We Learned From an Obama Win

Take the marriage moniker out of the dialogue, and gay rights have made seemingly insurmountable strides in the past four years.


Every national campaign has its moments of revelation, straws in the wind of change. For me, one of the most memorable blew past in a snippet of video.

It was June. Hillary Clinton was conceding the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. A few minutes into her speech, as she called the roll of her supporters, she hit on the words “gay and straight.” The camera angle was such that you could see young people in the crowd behind her erupt in boisterous cheers. A few minutes later a mention of “gay rights” elicited the same reaction.

Those young people, it struck me, were reacting to Clinton’s gay-friendly rhetoric the way we are used to seeing social conservatives react to gay-hostile rhetoric: with joyful recognition that their brand of pro-American values, their brand of patriotism, was being affirmed. The “moral values” energy was on our side.

In 2004, when President Bush beat Sen. John Kerry in a tight race, we thought we had learned the continuing, indeed renewed, potency of values issues (read: gay marriage and abortion). An activist state supreme court had legalized gay marriage; Republicans gleefully seized the issue by putting gay marriage bans on state ballots, energizing the party’s social conservative base. At a moment when voters were looking for stability and strength, the Republicans wove gay marriage into an overarching security narrative: America’s core values were being challenged by radical Islamists from without as well as radical judges from within, and Republicans could be trusted to stand up to both. On the defensive, Democrats scrambled to change the subject, triangulating away from their gay and lesbian supporters.

What a difference four years makes. Again activist judges, this time in two states (California and Connecticut), order same-sex marriage. Again gay marriage bans sprout on state ballots. Again the public craves stability and security, though this time the threat is economic. On paper, the ingredients are the makings of another 2004.

But this time the results were entirely different. In 2008, Democrats used gays as an applause line, embracing us as a symbol of the change agenda. More important, Obama embedded gays in a security narrative of his own: America has been weakened by divisive politics and fruitless bellicosity; inclusiveness can restore the country’s tattered unity, rebuilding strength at home and prestige abroad. This time it was the Republicans who mumbled and changed the subject, steering away from social issues both in their choice of nominee and in their campaign.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Martha McDevitt-Pugh
    Date posted: 11/26/2008 2:42:00 AM
    Hometown: Amsterdam, The Netherlands (originally Redwood City, CA)

    Comment:

    Thank you for a stimulating perspective on the future. It's admirable that our organizations have the commitment to pursue hate crimes legislation and ENDA year after year and to persist in the face of failure. However the world is changing and we need to revisit these priorities. Millions of us are disadvantaged every day because we lack the most basic of rights. Civil unions would make a difference to all same-sex partners. We would be protected by social security. Imagine a world of stability and financial protection for GLBT families. Thousands of US citizens who have had to leave the country to be with our non-US partners could come home, bringing back our talents and education paid for with US dollars. Families would be brought together again, aging parents could be cared for, our economy would be strengthened. It's time to think big about our future and to have the courage to let go of past strategies. They got us where we are. Time to move forward.



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