someday

Freddie

Freddie deBoer used to blog at lhote.blogspot.com, and may again someday. Now he blogs here.

Related Post Roulette

24 Responses

  1. Mike Farmer says:

    The present administration and congress seem to be the best proponents, and this the best time, for huge advances, since the Democrats are in control. I suppose Obama is waiting until after healthcare reform is over to begin investing energy and burning up his capital on gay rights. But the time is right for a concerted effort from the Democrats to make something happen.Report

  2. E.D. Kain says:

    I’m not sure that “some day” is the right way to phrase it. The process will be gradual and will consist of many different days over a very, very long period of time. It will happen in different regions and amongst different groups over long spans of time. And because it will happen this way, it will be the sort of change that lasts.Report

  3. North says:

    My personal guess is that DADT getting consigned to the trash heap will be a big first step. Historically official integration in the military helps minorities a lot because it makes them into patriots. Of course gays have always been in the military but when DADT gets the cut (and all sources and signs I’ve read say that that particular turkey is very clearly getting measured for its appointment with the butchers block) they’ll be able to serve openly and unapologetically. Morally of course this will be a big step but in terms of image and PR it’ll be a huge advancement as well.Report

  4. Jaybird says:

    I’ve long suspected that the issue was not a question of “if” but “when”. My take was on “what’s the quickest way to get from here to there?”

    Will doing it this way take 20 years and that way 50 and this other way 10? We should take this other way, then.

    I was very disappointed when Maine voted it down. That was one of the cornerstones of my “this other way”. Sigh.Report

  5. Dan Summers says:

    Sitting here in Maine, unmarried and unable to change it, I certainly hope a way can be found to right this particular wrong expeditiously. Relying on the good will of the people certainly didn’t pan out so well.

    Thanks for this, though, Freddie. It’s encouraging to know that we enjoy the advocacy of people such as yourself.Report

  6. M.Z. says:

    So today someone I know from high school came out on Facebook, and from what I understand, this was the first situation where he’s really come out as gay at all. It was great to see someone make that kind of a difficult decision and express himself in a way that he felt was constructive for his life [on Facebook].

    Chalk this up as another piece of evidence that Facebook is the phoniest place to approximate (non-romantic) intimacy and friendship. My decade old claim that online chat rooms were mainly for people with mental health issues seems to have greater applicability.Report

  7. Art Deco says:

    So today someone I know from high school came out on Facebook

    Exhibitionistic, and most distasteful.

    It was great to see someone make that kind of a difficult decision and express himself in a way that he felt was constructive for his life.

    Is this the usual criterion you employ when evaluating ‘expressions’? (Memo to secondary schools in Connecticut: be wary of this applicant).

    And it was really encouraging to see all of the positive comments and support that he got on his Facebook page.

    By people with no sense of manners.

    But he’s involved in local politics in my hometown, and he lamented the possibility that his political career would be ended by coming out.

    A man of 28 entering electoral politics for a career? Another Barney Frank. Luscious.

    And I hope my country has the capacity for enlightenment and progress ….

    To chuckle at cliches.

    Someday, though, the oppression and bullshit is going to end. Someday this country is going to fully and unapologetically extend basic American civil and human rights to gay men and women, and that means gay marriage, gay adoption rights and the right to serve in the military as openly gay.

    None of what you name has ever been an enforceable entitlement. The purpose of adoption law is not to please aspirant adoptive parents, but to see to the care of the young in the best setting you can manage. Matrimonial law provides formal demarcation and buttresses for natural social architecture. It’s purposes is not to provide people with baubles. The military fights wars; it is not properly disfigured for anyones political hobby horses.

    Someday this country is going to take the next crucial step in totally living up to its democratic and egalitarian ideals. And when that happens, the people, ideologies and parties that obstruct this progress will look back at that behavior and see that it is as embarrassing and shameful as the long history of support for racial segregation looks now.

    I expect I will get to the end of my days with many regrets. Casting a ballot against this burlesque will not be on the list.Report