Separated at Birth?

Even though Mike Signorile is an in-your-face New Yawker and I'm a slow-talking Southerner, I sometimes think we must be spiritual twins; he often seems to take the words right out of my mouth, as in this post-Election-Day pep talk from his radio show.

I foresee, now that the holidays are upon us, all this Prop 8 energy is going to dissipate - there are all those fabulous parties to plan and attend, of course, and then everybody's jetting off back home or on vacation, of course . . . and then oooh, the weather's much too cold to be doing street activities, you know . . . so it will be rather like spring semester back in college. A slow, sobering-up start; a now-what-were-we-doing hazy recollection of the fall enthusiasms; then finally a little progress as springtime warmth and color return to the earth. Oooh, but then there's spring break, you know, and exams, and job interviews, and oooh my sister's getting married, or my boyfriend's got a new job, or we planned this great vacation and the tickets are already bought . . . . Been there, heard that.

So it remains to be seen whether this recent burst of activism will really bear any substantial fruit in the new year. Seems to me a leaderless, unfocused mass movement is unlikely to sustain itself, despite all the rah-rah talk about Stonewall 2.0. I do hope I'm wrong. But we need to remember what Mike says here about having to work for our civil rights; nobody's going to hand them to us, easily and effortlessly.