And Yet The Sun Rose

Marriage equality got a huge win in New York last night, and yet it’s Minot, N.D. and Missouri which are floooding. God did not send a tornado to destroy the state of New York nor did she send the waters of the Hudson to wash Manhattan clean. So suck on it, Pat Robertson and Maggie Gallagher.

This is just another example of what I’ve been talking about, how change comes as surely as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. We lurch towards enlightenment, one step at a time.

Sometimes I think our biggest problem is our lack of patience. And our second biggest problem is our lack of perspective. This is a human nature thing, we get consumed by the patterns in front of us, forgetting the universe is seeing the whole tapestry.

I found this especially interesting:

The approval of same-sex marriage represented a reversal of fortune for gay-rights advocates, who just two years ago suffered a humiliating defeat when a same-sex marriage bill was easily rejected by the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. This year, with the Senate controlled by Republicans, the odds against passage of same-sex marriage appeared long.

But the unexpected victory had a clear champion: Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who pledged last year to support same-sex marriage but whose early months in office were dominated by intense battles with lawmakers and some labor unions over spending cuts.

Mr. Cuomo made same-sex marriage one of his top priorities for the year and deployed his top aide to coordinate the efforts of a half-dozen local gay-rights organizations whose feuding and disorganization had in part been blamed for the defeat two years ago.

The new coalition of same-sex marriage supporters brought in one of Mr. Cuomo’s trusted campaign operatives to supervise a $3 million television and radio campaign aimed at persuading several Republican and Democratic senators to drop their opposition.

It matters less who’s in charge, it matters more that those who are trying to get something done work together, set aside their petty personal agendas and keep their eyes on the big prize. I think we forget that sometimes.

In my dreams, women’s groups and healthcare advocates and social justice churches and advocates for the poor get together in a big room in a hotel in Nashville and plan for three days how they can stop the assault on women’s healthcare in Tennessee.

And then in my dreams environmental groups and green businesses and social justice churches and “creation care” congregations and science geeks and eco-justice organizations and poverty advocates and healthcare crusaders get together somewhere in Knoxville and figure out how to stop the assault on our drinking water and air and soil, which affects the poor more than the rich, but affects us all to some degree. And no one wrings their hands and says, “well we have Teatard Republicans in charge of the legislature and a goofball weak-kneed governor with a spine like wet spaghetti so nothing will ever get done.” No, they set aside their personal agendas and keep their eyes on the big prize and get it done because it’s too important not to try.

6 Comments

Filed under GLBT, marriage

6 responses to “And Yet The Sun Rose

  1. I’m happy for my GLBT friends. This was important to them. I’m still unclear as to what this does beyond the State of New York. There are other States that made same sex marriage legal, is the idea that if large States with significant electoral votes approve, something will get done on a Federal level? I’m asking because other states do not have to recognize the marriages, as they do with traditional marriage, right? Normally, I’m up to speed on the issues, but I hit a HUGE wall long ago trying to talk this through with GLBT advocates. I still support them, but I no longer do so financially.

    Regardless, I agree that patience is a problem. I try to measure my intensity based on how much real pain and suffering is being alleviated…or not.

  2. We need to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, I think that’s the first priority.

    The bricks will fall, one after another. Yes there are state laws preventing the recognition of other state marriages, but there were with mixed-race couples back in the day, too. We’ll get a friendly Supreme Court one of these days and those laws will be overturned.

    And if anyone is looking for a business opportunity in New York, I’d say florists, wedding photographers, honeymoon travel packages and cheesy cover bands are a good place to start …. 🙂

  3. Not to perpetuate a stereotype, but I think teh gays might have better taste in wedding bands than their hetero counterparts.

  4. Up here in GAYmarriage Central we are already experiencing the decline of civilization. It rained a couplea inches in the last few days and I just the heard the sireens awhoopin’ down on the canal and the stern ladyvoice recording that says “water is rising rapidly, get your stupid hipwader encased lardasses outta the river!”. Oh, but wait, it’s been doing that ever since I moved here. Nevermind.

  5. Jim

    “Oh, but wait, it’s been doing that ever since I moved here.” So you are the reason for the decline in civilization?

  6. Min

    From a sign at the Rally to Restore Sanity:

    “Three words that will save the economy: Gay Bridal Registry”