Today's Quote: "I'm a regular American"

In the wake of Prop 8 and the other anti-gay amendments that were passed on Nov. 4, lots of people are knocking the big gay rights outfits, and HRC in particular. Here's what Ann Rostow has to say in the San Francisco Bay Times, the Bay Area's gay paper (she lives in Austin, Texas):

The tipping point is not simply about a new era of activism, if indeed such an era is beginning. It is about the discouraging state of formal GLBT leadership, specifically the leadership of the Human Rights Campaign. If our community is indeed rising up, let us rise up not only for marriage rights, but for courage and competence at the helm of our largest civil rights organizations, and eloquence from our main voice in national politics.

For God’s sake, if we can bring courage, competence and eloquence to the Oval Office, we can find a way to bring it to the executive offices of a lobbying group. . . .

Hate crimes are despicable. But legislation won’t end them. Hate crime penalties are rarely enforced or charged where applicable. And when they are, it’s often in a case that is so violent, the charge itself carries massive punishment to begin with. A federal hate crime law is also the least controversial of any gay rights proposal now pending before Congress and it is HRC’s top priority for the sole reason of feasibility. A hate crime law will be the easiest, and one of the least useful, pieces of federal legislation that we can pass. HRC has never passed a gay rights bill through Congress and they are dying to do so now. . . .

You know what? A federal hate crime law is not our top priority as a community. And I am not appointing myself Director of the Gay Agenda, I am stating a fact. Yet HRC continues to plod away on yesterday’s bills, hate crimes and the watered down trans-less Employment Nondiscrimination Act, without the slightest sense of where the rest of us want to be led. And the problem is that we only have so much political capital. We cannot afford to spend it on hate crimes or the wreck of an ENDA bill that we’ve been hawking for a couple decades. . . .

What are we arguing for now? “Oh! Please Mister. Don’t let them kill me because I’m gay!” “Oh! Please Ma’am. Don’t let them fire me because I’m a lesbian!” “Oh Please Voter. Don’t discriminate against poor little me!” Aren’t we tired of being victims on our knees? Isn’t it time to stand up and say, “Look, I’m not scary. I’m not a pervert. I’m a regular American like you, and I’d like to serve my country, raise my children, and weave my relationship into the social fabric of this country just like you.”

And isn’t this the time to start changing our carefully nuanced message and start saying what we believe, which ironically is exactly what America is waiting hear from us. Because if we can’t bring ourselves to ask our fellow citizens to treat us as equals, why the hell should they? We’re not acting like equals!

I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me precisely how a hate-crimes law will benefit anyone in the gay community. What exactly is the good that it will do for us?