God, Gays, and Obama

Japhy Grant, the new editor over at Queerty, has a couple of interesting posts that bear on the Warren invocation flap, and the President-elect's apparent cluelessness.

First, regarding "God's Amicus Brief on Prop. 8," filed by a doozy of a rightwing religious nut, Japhy writes:

This brief is hilarious because it's so misguided and angry, but its extreme cluelessness lays bare the basic idiocy at the heart of the more nuanced arguments of folks like Rick Warren and the Mormon Church. They fear for our eternal souls but their words and acts have made life here on Earth a hell for far too many gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Too many of us have been the victim of hate crimes by people who have sat in the pews of homophobic churches. Too many teenagers have killed themselves or lived in depression or felt alone because their pastor tells them the way they were born — the way God made them — is a sin. Too many families have been ripped apart in the name of following God's word.

I want to respect the private beliefs of everyone I meet. Diversity of belief is one of the things that make this country great, but increasingly these days, as I examine my own beliefs and the beliefs of those who tell me that the way I love, the most human emotion I can experience, is a sin, the more I see that it is they who are wrong, not me.

I don't need a direct pipeline to God to know it; the answer's in my heart.

And in a post entitled "Mr. Obama, Here Is Our Compromise," Japhy calls on the Prez-elect to just do the right thing for the right reason:

In later life, Booker T. Washington found himself at odds with the newly created NAACP, which was unafraid to speak loudly and forcefully for civil rights. Likewise, the gay community is abandoning the appeasement tactics of old in exchange for a direct, forceful argument that "separate but equal" is wrong, no matter how sweetly it is worded by folks like Rev. Warren. Obama asks us to disagree without being disagreeable. That's hogwash. Discriminating against gays and lesbians is wrong and it's a moral outrage. Obama may be a master politician, but these newbie gay activists aren't idiots, either.

Far from shooting themselves in the foot, the louder and more visibly gays and lesbians make the argument that discrimination is wrong and that find it intolerable, oppressive and insulting, the more we help our fellow citizens examine the issue more closely. Shooting ourselves in the foot? Have you turned on the television this week? Rev. Warren and his beliefs are being discussed on every cable news program, on the nightly local news. Having lost every single time our rights have come up to a vote, gays and lesbians have nothing to lose in making our case vocally and often.

Booker T. Washington offered a compromise in 1895 and we'll offer Obama a compromise in 2008.

Mr. Obama, want us to be less disagreeable? Want to see an end to protests? We'll stop, just as soon as the fundamental humanity of our love is acknowledged, in all 50 states, through marriage equality for all, protection of LGBT people from discrimination and violence and the freedom to defend the country we love without having to hide who we are. Don't do it because it's politically smart, do it because it's the right thing to do.

You know it is.

What I say: Warren is a Southern Baptist preacher, and so were his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before him. Having lived in the Deep South all my life, I'm very familiar with the type. In private life, he might be a great dad, a friendly guy, a good neighbor, kind to animals and children. He'll lend you his lawnmower, his truck, or even the shirt off his back if you need it.

But. He will never, ever admit that his theology is wrong, never ever change his opinion about gays and sin and immorality, all that. He would still be grinning like a teddy bear as he threw you over the cliff into eternal torment, if he had that power. He is certain that he has the one, right, universal truth, and neither jail nor torture nor death would ever break that lock on his mind, much less the appeals of sweet reason.

Unless he were to have some sort of breakdown, as occasionally happens to people in his position, which is an enlightening experience. But otherwise no, he's not ever going to change his opinion. There's no point trying to reason with him. Melissa and Andrew, are you listening to me? It's just not happening.

But I say, let him pray. Sixty seconds of pious mouthing won't hurt us a bit. Hell, as Japhy has said, what have we got to lose at this point anyway? But. It will let Obama save face with the righteous Right; and it will also put Obama very much under the obligation then to live up to all his fine promises he made us during the campaign. And woe betide him if he doesn't.

Let Warren pray, and be a footnote in the history books. We got other, much bigger fish to fry. Turn up the heat.