In 1987, Ronald Reagan nominated a conservative legal scholar to the Supreme Court named Robert Bork. When the Senate rejected the nomination, Sweet Honey in the Rock performed what seemed to be a spontaneous celebratory chant/song to his defeat at their Carnegie Hall concert in 1988. I've adapted some of the lyrics, only replacing the word "Bork" with the word "Barak".
A bitter battle!
A bitter battle for Barak!
The battle for Barak is over!
The battle for Barak is done!
The battle for Barak is history -
you know:
OUR
SIDE
WON!!
That's one side of me. The other side crumpled, like the bad side of a stroke victim, as I watched California, Florida, Arkansas slam down their judgments on gay marriage and the rights of gay couples to adopt children. Careful readers and friends will know I don't actually support gay marriage. But it's not just gay marriage - I don't like marriage as a state institution. Keep it to your churches, your synagogues, your covens and backyards and chapels. Keep it out of the courthouses.
That said, as long as we hang on to marriage as a civil institution, I have to support gay marriage - if for no other reason than, as one friend said, "If the conservative base gets away with [voting Yes on California's Proposition 8], then it gives them the courage, if not the mandate, to do something really ugly next time."
My emotions were an oil-and-water mess by midnight - grief and elation irreconcilably taking up space. One friend, a straight man from Los Angeles, called me to commiserate, but almost every queer person I spoke to before midnight had to be reminded that "our side" had lost pretty crucially. Talk about finding community where you least expect it. (After midnight, when the news got out more broadly, I started seeing the reactions of the queer community.)
And on one other note, I want to second the sentiment I've seen everywhere about McCain's acceptance speech: it was absolutely and admirably gracious.
3 comments:
I have that kind of oil-and-water response to Florida at the moment. On the one hand, it went blue for the first time in twelve years, and I'm proud of it for that. On the other hand, that ballot measure. WTF. God dammit, Florida, I cannot believe you passed that fucking thing. *incoherent rage*
How is it possible to be both incredibly proud and incredibly ashamed of my state at the same time?
on the plus side, however, massachusetts decriminalized the possession of 1 oz or less of marijuana.
Yay Massachusetts! Also, they kept the state income tax and ended dog racing. I love my little state, even if it does have a stick up its ass sometimes. Like, this whole decriminalizing thing - in Seattle and Oakland, instead of making it a $100 fine, the people voted to make marijuana busts the police's lowest priority. Like, lower than littering. Now, that's decriminalization.
And also my district re-elected the jerk Scott Garret for Congress instead of the nice Democrat environmentalist RABBI, Dennis Shulman. Can't win everything.
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