Never Blend In

Last night I went to the People's Premire of Gus Van Sant's 'Milk' movie and i can only begin to describe how moving, how INSPIRING it is.

There is an eerie resonance between to events of the movie and the recent events of gay history, as if they are Bizaro World reflections of one another. Except this time our movement lacked organization. This time our movement had no leadership.

But this time our movement has allies.

I was touched to come home last night to find that two political commentators, both of whom i respect greatly, had made statements of support and solidarity with the cause of LGBT rights. The first, and the one i'm sure will garner the most attention, was Kieth Olbermann's:



Mr. Olbermann, Thank You! Your powerful words and the clear passion with which you spoke them have earned you my eternal respect and gratitude.

The second pundit to show solidarity with the Gay Movement was Benjamin Wachs from the SF Weekly. Mr. Wachs implores us not to start a 'holy war,' He says that their are clear paths to victory and the all involve 'outreach.' And i agree. Outreach to the black and latino communities, exposing them to our humanity, is the only way we can get Prop 8. reversed.

But it is not enough. For too long the agents of hate have sallied forth from whitewashed walls and brick steeples to do violence to our community. For too long have have these hate-mongers clothed themselves in self-righteousness as they stood on pulpits and behind podiums preaching to their flocks that MY PEOPLE are monsters, are MOLESTERS! PERVERTS undeserving of the samebasicrights and considerations as everybody else.

Fuck that. I'm not going to turn the other cheek anymore. We need to stop playing defence with our own rights and lives. We need to take the fight to the enemy. To every priest and pastor and two-bit politician that would whip his congregation into a frenzy by pointing out the gay boogieman lurking in every school and on every street, i say that we will not take it anymore. We will fight you. We will expose you for what you are. WE WILL DEFEND OUR SELVES.

If we don't they are just going to keep coming.