After The Protest - My Thoughts

I'm listening to Whoopi on The View right now, and she is talking about the protest last night. (Isn't it amazing that so many of us are turning to her right now to see what she says? She has become one of our voices -- more on that later.) Whoopi is saying, "If you don't know how you feel about gay marriage, go out and meet the families, go out and see what it is they really want." Amen.

Last night's protest was bracing. In a lot of ways.

It started at 6:30 (although I hear quite a few people arrive earlier), and I got there around 6:45. A thick river of bundled-up people marched down from the Mormon Temple, bent to file across 61st, and pool in Columbus Circle.

I moved in and out of the marchers, from the street to the curb and back. It was cool out, not yet cold, and serious out. There were alot of people, almost like a parade, but minus, for the most part, the abandon at a parade of a fesitival. Pockets of different chants dotted the route that wound beneath the enormous red CNN sign and headquarter. We were being seen. One of the protest marshalls kept shouting, "We're at 12,000 people! 12,000! Head down 61st! 12,000!"

More after the jump.

When I was deposited in Columbus Circle, I searched for a place to park myself and protest. I moved around, trying to see where the speakers were (I'd heard that Whoopi was going to be speaking), trying to find a place to focus my attention. Almost everyone else was doing the same. Most of the quieter protestors gathered around the more vocal ones, and groups of the chanters and listeners marked each corner of Columbus Circle.

As I roamed from corner to corner, I noticed that there was no real center, no focal point to direct the justified anger and the buzzing energy of the crowd. We had no leader. We have no leader.

Let me say now that I think what Michelangelo Signorile and Corey Johnson, Ann Northrop, and all of the other organizers did was remarkable. And I think the results of what they did have pointed us in a new direction. And that new direction is highlighting the areas we need to work on, as a community.

We are walking through a perfect storm of religion, race, and sexuality. Has this ever happened? And has it ever happened at a moment that has proven that fighting the good fight pays off? We have elected Obama. We know we can make things better. But where do we start?

I think we need to focus on the perfect storm itself. Homosexuality has not inoculated the gay community against the treatable diseases of the larger culture we inhabit. Last night was a very white, very male experience. Why? Why were there so few people of color? Why were there so few women? Why were we focused on what the Mormons did when there are so many other churches equally responsible? (I'm not the only to have noticed this - Andy Humm of The Gay City News noted these issues last night as well.) We don't do anyone any favors by pretending that the gay community is flawless and the rest of the world is evil. We need to address our problems head on so we can figure out how to solve them. And show them how it's done.

Andy Humm also wrote: "No speeches. No leaders. But lots of anger." I think the lack of leadership is what allows for a blurring of our message. The failures of the No on Prop 8 campaign came as much from a fractured gay leadership as it did from plain old bigotry. More from Humm:

Mark Monford, columnist at the Chronicle, called the response of the No side to the attack ads by the Yes people "utterly limp," writing, "As one of my politically savvy Chronicle colleagues put it, 'No on 8 was a bad campaign. Bad, bad, bad. Inept, amateurish, incompetent, and, above all, guilty of committing the first and worst sin of politics: taking the voters for granted."

And Dan Savage, bless his heart, has become a default voice, and he's doing as much harm as help. His "Black Homophobia" post was a bad idea, and his appearance last night on CNN made us look hysterical and unfocused.

We need to keep protesting, keep fighting, and become even more focused.Obama told us to get our own leader. So let's begin that search by leading by example. Let's use the enormous success of last night's protest to give us the energy we will need to make our community what it's always promised to be - a safe place for everyone.