It happened after Dan Cathy, the CEO of fast food chain Chick-fil-A, publicly announced his opposition to same-sex marriage and his financial support of the Family Research Council (an organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) came to light. This should not have come as surprise to anyone familiar with the Cathy family’s reactionary politics. The resulting uproar, however, is bound to leave ears ringing for weeks to come.
No sooner did activists call for a boycott of the chain than a group of Christian wingnuts declared a day in support of Chick-fil-A. (“C’mon Amanda! C’mon Billy an’ Tammy Sue! We’re havin’ dinner at Chick-fil-A, ‘cause that’s what Jesus wants us to do!)
The sight of long lines of SUVs idling in drive thru lanes competed with scenes of gay and lesbian couples staging “kiss ins” outside Chick-fil-A franchises on the cable news networks. The absurdity reached its nadir a couple of days ago when a man in Tucson berated a hapless Chick-fil-A employee for Dan Cathy’s sins, then posted a video of the incident on YouTube. (Which promptly went viral, causing the gasbags on Fox News to gleefully accuse the guy of bullying.)
What fun. Forty-three years after Stonewall and nearly thirty-four years since the martyrdom of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, we are nowhere close to common acceptance of LGBT civil rights. The most frustrating problem for progressives is the waffling of Democratic leaders, which too often borders on moral cowardice.
Take, for example, President Obama’s recent statement in support of same-sex marriage, a reversal of his position during the 2008 election campaign. Obama didn’t come right out with an unambiguous declaration of support. Instead, he relied on Vice President Joe Biden as a stalking horse. Given Biden’s habit of verbal missteps, it would have been easy for the White House to distance itself from him had his pro-same-sex-marriage remarks, offhandedly dropped during a TV interview, provoked a media backlash. When the response seemed favorable, Obama, surely needing LGBT votes in November, revealed his apparent change of heart.
With friends like these, the equal rights movement stands to make scant progress. The truth is that Obama’s reversal and the proposal to add a plank in support of same-sex marriage to the Democratic Party platform are merely symbolic gestures. Should the Republicans keep their House majority after the election, they will probably be even less than that. As long as the Defense of Marriage Act remains law, individual states will retain the prerogative to deny same-sex couples marriage and other family rights. At present perhaps the best hope lies in the Supreme Court granting certiorari in the Perry case and subsequently overturning California’s Proposition 8. However, there are far too many “ifs” in this scenario to raise anyone’s hopes.
There are occasional sign of progress, such as the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. But outside the major urban areas, out where the “real Americans” live, it might as well be 1955. LGBT activism is mostly concentrated in cities with significant gay and lesbian populations, making it a matter of preaching to the choir. Thus, it is incumbent on those working within the political process to effect change. And as long as the party that claims dedication to equal rights fails to take a stand against the benighted mores of a past era, we will all in some way remain in darkness.
© 2012 The Unassuming Scholar
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