Audaciously Celebrate: What We Need to Do Post Proposition 8

 
Yesterday was historic: love won. It was also a missed opportunity. Instead of celebrating audaciously, partying recklessly, dancing madly, and loving loudly, Gay Inc. organized a bland rally and march in the most boring of places: the Castro. There were beautiful moments -- a lesbian Jewish wedding for one -- and gorgeous people and an air of victory, but it wasn't celebratory. I'm concerned.

We struggle day after day to live, survive, and love. Our political wins as a community are rare and microscopic. We have yet to advance any major civil rights legislation on the national level. We still get gay bashers legally showing up at our funerals. Time and again we face adversity after adversity and we still show up, challenge norms, and push boundaries. We are a resilient people.

To put is simply: we won! We won on so many levels that the only thing to do is celebrate; to rejoice with our whole beings and show the world what the victory of love looks like; to inspire those who have fought for years and those just joining the fight; to transform our anger at injustice into a fete of freedom. It is not the time for politician political grandstanding, organizations demanding donations, or protesting as usual. We need a party!

Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling yesterday structurally paved the way forward for our legal battle on the federal front. It is a lengthy 138-page document that strikes down Proposition 8 on two fronts: a violation of equal protection and due process clauses. This alone it victorious. It is also only the tip of the iceberg. Embedded into his judgment are 80 statements of facts on gender and sexual orientation. These facts systematically and legally debunk all of the conservative Christian arguments against homosexuality. Judge Walker even calls out the validity of the research on which these arguments have been made. These statements of facts can and will be used in almost all of our legal battles moving forward. That we now have legal language that disproves the Religious Right, not just researched facts, is the most historic piece of yesterday's ruling. Like I said: we won!

I tried listening to figureheads up on the platform at the intersection of Castro and Market streets yesterday. I strained my ears as the speakers quietly projected speeches about how "the fight isn't over" of "this is only the beginning". I wanted to be engaged, but these tired phrases and blase' colloquialisms mean nothing. Yes, I know the fight isn't over. No, it isn't the beginning -- in fact, it is far from the beginning. I want radical celebration. I want screaming, hugging, dancing, joy. I want pride.

I ran into friends at the rally and march. We hugged, hung out for a minute, and bitched. I wasn't the only one wanting something different than what Gay Inc. organized. At some point, a friend said something close to, "When I found out, I had to go into the SF MOMA store to find someone I knew to celebrate with. Sure, she was straight, but I needed my hug." I felt the same way, and I was standing next to my husband. Yet here we were standing in the middle of hundreds of queers all looking like lemmings waiting for permission to party. Is this the legacy of the gay machine: that we need permission?

Each of us holds responsibility for not jumping into the middle of Castro and dancing or turning to our neighbor and hugging him/her. I could have walked in to Twin Peaks and said something to compel the patrons of the packed bar to get out in the streets instead of sipping cocktails. I didn't do any of these things. Instead, I stayed in my comfort zone of personal judgment. I stayed a passive participant holding a sign handed to me by Equality California. I was waiting for permission instead of making my own. I could have done better. I could have done more.

Gay Inc. can also do better. The Castro, which a noble and historic staging ground, isn't the heart of the queer movement any longer. Queers are integrated into communities of all sorts around the Bay Area and beyond. We live in Bayview/Hunter's Point, the Mission, the Sunset, West Oakland, Richmond, Daly City, Vallejo. We are black, Chinese, blue collar, nurses, poor, homeless, Christian, unemployed, wealthy, potheads, Salvadoran, sober, Buddhist, Jewish, young, elders, positive, artists, police, business owners, radicals, conservatives, monogamists, polygamists, and everything in between. We need a celebration that honors this incredible and beautiful diversity and pluralism. We need rallies at 16th and Mission, Stonestown mall, Union Square, Grace Cathederal, on Ocean Avenue in front of Voice of the Pentecost. We need music and art. We need to use our strengths. We need the drag queens dressed to the nines and the dykes on bikes and the punks with signs filled with cursing. We need a massive outlet for our expression. A rally with the same old speakers rattling off tired talking points is something we do not need.

Let's, for a moment, review some of the significance of this victory:

1.) Judge Vaughn Walker was appointed by President Ronald Reagan not by some "liberal activist".

2.) Ted Olson and David Boies, plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case, were on opposite sides of Bush versus Gore.

3.) "Sexual orientation is commonly discussed as a characteristic of the individual.Sexual orientation is fundamental to a person’s identity and is a distinguishing characteristic that defines gays and lesbians as a discrete group.Proponents’ assertion that sexual orientation cannot be defined is contrary to the weight of the evidence." -- From Judge Walker's Rulings.

4.) "Individuals do not generally choose their sexual orientation. No credible evidence supports a finding that an individual may, through conscious decision, therapeutic intervention or
any other method, change his or her sexual orientation." -- From Judge Walker's Rulings

5.) Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional against the federal constitution.

Regardless of its appeal or the its potential result, these few facts matter and they matter in core, fundamental ways.

First, this issue has gone beyond Republican and Democrat. While lead Republicans in the House and Senate are vehemently anti-gay and anti-transgender, their base is shifting. The Tea Party is holding a certain base of Republicans hostage, but there are also liberators in unexpected places like Roy Ashburn, Meghann McCain, and Laura Bush. Democrats while talking out of both sides of their mouths -- "Personally I believe marriage is only between a man and a woman, but I support repealing DOMA -- are finding their own words being used against them by both liberals and conservatives. The real of who is for and against gay marriage and gay rights is no longer the same as that of the 1990s. It is a younger, more connected, and more savvy realm. We need to party in this realm.

Second, we now have a legal precedent upon which to build a case of gay and transgender civil rights beyond gay marriage. Judge Walker's statements of facts about the evolution of marriage, definition of sexual orientation, and gender constructs and roles show how much the United States of American has changed. And it does so legally. Color me crazy, but a legal document that acknowledges, "Gays and lesbians have been victims of a long history of discrimination" and "Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians." means that we have progressed as a society -- Religious Right, Tea Part, Fox, and NOM be damned!

This is radical! I want our radical response!!

Yesterday's rally and march missed that opportunity. We played it safe still fearful of outside perception and media coverage that could taint our image. We held ourselves to constructs of what it means to protest. In some ways, the winning of this case solidifies our buy-in into mainstream constructs of being. That is why our response to this win is so significant: we cannot just reenforce the status quo. We must be brave, brilliant, and creative. We must not conform. We must dance and sing and dress up and make noise. We must celebrate!

I celebrate this win with all of my being. It is the most radical thing I can think of to do. I feel victory in the tips of my toes. I weep at the struggle it took to get us here and the struggle it will continue to be. I write this piece not really for readers but for my self. I have to make sense of this and celebrate; audaciously celebrate.

I know this isn't the end. I know we still have hard, significant work ahead of us. I also know that if we don't celebrate our victories we won't have anything to celebrate. For it is in these moments when we must inspire, connect and love. That is the queer thing to do.

So...If you see me in the community, expect a hug, a kiss, a shimmy. For we won! We fucking won!

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