Feb 1st, 2006
State of the Union, State of the Civil Union, etc.
The day after President Bush’s first State of the Union address in 2001, I sent out my first E-Newsletter. I wrote that zero mention of gay Americans in his 2001 speech was a bad omen of policies to come. I caught plenty of flak for jumping to conclusions before giving the guy a chance. Sadly, time has proven my forecast to be accurate.
Five years later, Bush did not include gay Americans in his State of the Union Address, save for an oblique reference to marriage equality, and how worrisome it is for “many Americans.” (I guess “many” is code for “homophobic.”)
Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions. They are concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage.
To the uninvolved ungay untrained ear, this sounds pretty reasonable. Mr. and Ms. MiddleAmerica are at home nodding their heads, thinking, “Yes, yes…we’re Americans. We’re concerned for our children. Deeply. Yes that’s us. Yes to healthy institutions. No to activists judges. You’ve got our support, Prez.”
That’s why supporters of marriage equality need to speak up to your friends and neighbors who are MiddleAmerica. Yes there are opponents to same-sex marriage who are opposed to it simply because they hate queers and will do anything to squash their rights. But I think there are many more people who oppose “redefining marriage” because they have been convinced that that’s what legalizing same-sex marriages will do and they are not being offered other ways of thinking about it.
Start talking. Keep talking. Keep coming out. Show MiddleAmerica that “those gays” are not a threat to America; they are part of America.