LGBT Inclusion At the Democratic Convention
5About the Author
Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Related Posts
America, there is hope for you yet. His name is President Obama.
Amen to that. It was so nice to see us all represented there and not have to hide, kiss butt, or whatever like the LCRs and GOProuders seem to feel they have to do at the Rethuglican convention.
I just wish Obama was actually competent. Sigh… oh well.
Considering the hot mess he got stuck with from the rethugs AND the endless obstruction from the right, I think what he *has* gotten done has been pretty remarkable. He may not be perfect, but I don’t think he’s incompetent; actually I think he’s a bit of a master chess player when it comes to politics.
It was not long ago that friends and I would celebrate when a president would say a word or two about us in a State of the Union address. And we hoped that maybe that meant that the president would do something on our behalf.
Now we celebrate the progress that has been made on the local, state and national levels. We used to be pleased when openly LGBT people participated in a national party convention. Now we have a party whose membership has a number of LGBT appointed and elected officials, whose convention includes many LGBT delegates, whose platform includes full equality for us, whose many speakers have spoken in our behalf, whose representatives and senators and president have not only spoken in our behalf, but have delivered on their promises to us.
None of that would have happened had we not worked, and rallied, and demonstrated, and marched and organized long and hard for our rights. None of that would have happened without the help of allies we had won along the way.
We still have a long way to go. But we are now in the mainstream, not just on the fringes hoping to get in. That is a major cause for celebration. But it is also an incentive for us to keep moving forward and to never falter in our work. We see the battles for voting rights and women’s rights that we thought had been won under attack. We see the battles for our rights under attack.
I have a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt attached to my computer cabinet as a constant reminder of the need to never let up. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” Even when it has been achieved in one decade or one generation, it must be constantly reclaimed in the next. Because there are always people who out of fear, or out of greed, or out of lust for power want to take freedom away.