Our Time, Our Challenge, Our Victory

Well, brothers and sisters, my heart is still aching over the stunning setbacks to equal marriage in this nation. But the way ahead is clear.

Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on CHANGE. This no time for tears and despair. This country has just made a quantum leap forward in its long, long struggle to lay hold of and make real the dream and the promise of America: equality, liberty, and justice FOR ALL.

That is our birthright as sons and daughters of America. We will not let go of it. We have already fought long and hard for our freedoms, our equality, our rights and our dignity as gay Americans. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and fight a little longer, a little harder, more determined than ever to win, to earn, what belongs to us as Americans.

Yes, we have been dealt a crushing blow. But not for the first time have our hopes been dashed against the rocks of ignorance and intolerance, and perhaps not for the last time. Bloodied but unbowed, let us carry on the struggle, united in the firm hope, the devout belief that love will cast out fear, truth will banish lies, and the right will prevail over the wrong, in God's good time.

We must not be dismayed, we must not lose hope, we must not surrender our dreams or listen for a single moment to the ugly voices among us, a few, calling for violence and retribution against our ungenerous neighbors, against churches and organizations that oppose us. NO--that is not the way.

Instead, let us conduct ourselves with the nobility of mind that belongs to men and women deserving of freedom and equality. If we want to be respected, we must give respect. If we want to be loved, we must love first. These are universal laws. And we are not above the law.

There must be no room for hate in our hearts. My mother always said, "Two wrongs don't make a right." And "If you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend." How wise she was.

Instead of wrongdoing, vengeance, retribution, we Americans believe, we must believe, in the ultimate wisdom of democracy, in the rule of law, in equal justice under law. We can never achieve our dreams any other way. We believe in democracy, not thuggery. We believe in justice and right, not in deeds of darkness. We believe that might does not make right; and that time and history and the noblest aspirations, the just vision, of humanity are all on our side.

Therefore, let us not mutter nor even think of evil, skulking deeds. Instead, let us make our stand here and now, let us turn and fight with all the weapons of democracy and constitutional government at hand, let us lift our heads and hearts, and press on gallantly, nobly, indomitably towards the goal of full equality, as befits a strong and gentle people.

We take heart from knowing that other people, other outcasts, fought long and hard to win the prize, and were undeterred. The struggle for women's suffrage lasted from 1848 to 1920. African-Americans endured a full century of inequality from the end of the Civil War until the civil-rights legislation of the 1960's. And we could go on to name other groups, other struggles, other disappointed yet confident minorities who prevailed over injustice at long last, and some who still carry on the struggle.

It seems that such must be our fate too; but we will glory in it. We will fight another day, we will press on, we will make our name shine in the chronicles of American history for the justice of our cause, for the dignity of our struggle, for the hope within our hearts: the confidence that America can and will be all that she was meant to be.

We are downhearted now; but we shall not despair. Our new President-elect has shown us the way: a marvelous example of grassroots organizing, fundraising, campaigning. And after a long, hard-fought campaign, we see that change has indeed come to America. We take heart from his example, and his story, and the stories of millions of others who never gave up on hope.

We are blessed to live in the land of liberty; though equal marriage eludes our grasp for the moment in most corners of the land, we will use the tools we have to work with: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition for redress of grievances - and an unconquerable, unashamed determination to see this fight through to the very end.

We will return again to the sources of our spiritual strength, whatever they may be. We will recall and read again the words of those who marched to a different drum, who would not bow to oppression, who would not be intimidated or turned aside from the march to justice: Thoreau, Gandhi, King, and so many others. We will remember that they too suffered long - they too were disappointed - they too wept bitter tears sometimes. But despite everything the world threw at them, they not merely endured, they prevailed.

We will revere and honor the memory of those who came before us in this struggle, and those who suffered and died in a nation seemingly indifferent to their fall. We will embrace more firmly those we love now, we will rededicate ourselves to the struggle, we will open our hearts, our arms, and our hands to our families, our friends and our neighbors, our communities, our nation, and yes, even to those who fear and despise us. We will make plain the justice of our cause to everyone, we will carry the struggle to the courts and the legislatures and the people of this our country, this our republic, this our hallowed land. We will never surrender. And one fine day, we will prevail.

This is our time. This is our moment to fight for change. And we have great hope: never before in the history of this nation have so many in government and out of government supported our cause. Never before have we already succeeded in so many places in winning the right to live out our lives in equal dignity and respect. We have great success, we have great hope.

Forty years ago, before Stonewall, we could be locked up just for being caught in the same place with other gays; queer men and women lived deeply closeted lives, fearful and isolated. But those dark days are over, gone forever. We have come a long, long way since then. We rejoice in all we have achieved down to this day. We do not fear the future, we do not lose heart, we do not give up. We fight on, in the halls of justice, in the corridors of representative government, in the highways and byways of the media, in the arena of public opinion. We fight on, and we do not surrender.

This is our country, too. We're not going anywhere, and we're not backing down. The triumph of the democratic process and the awe-inspiring, epochal success of our President-elect will be for us a guiding light to victory. And our victory, too, will surely come.

Can we conduct ourselves as valiant, peaceful warriors for what is right? Can we struggle on unfailingly to protect the rights and freedoms of our families, our children, our loved ones, and the millions of gays and lesbians who will come after us, the queer kids yet unborn? Can we make plain the justice of our cause to our neighbors, our co-workers, our fellow citizens, our elected representatives? Can we love boldly, speak truthfully, fight on and on for however long it takes to win their hearts and minds to the cause of liberty and justice for all?

YES. WE. CAN.