Earlier this year, I and many other LGBT folks and DKos members voiced our dissatisfaction with President Obama's and Congress's slow action on our civil rights, and their incomplete support of equality.
"Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good," I was told by a state Democratic party chairman on one site. Many other users here told me and other diarists that, basically, we should be thrilled there is movement at all -- and that the President and Congress will move LGBT causes forward, and that while we may not get everything we want, we should be happy to get some steps forward: the rest will come with time and continued work. But don't make too much of a fuss -- it could derail other issues.
I wonder if those screaming for the public option in the face of Presidential equivocation and Congressional obfuscation -- already having given up on single payer as a realistic goal -- might be discovering how we feel when told that. How it feels to have the best options traded away before you can get to the table. How it feels to have those you help get to and hold power turn around and spoonfeed your enemies.
Just as we LGBT folks recently said when pumped for money and then handed crumbs thus far in our fight for equality, in the words of poster Angry Mouse yesterday, "Fuck you, Democrats".
I recently pointed out in a diary that a vast proportion of the same wingnuts healthcare activists face at townhalls and in media are the same wingnuts we LGBT folks (and many others before us) have faced fighting for equality.
I see another, similar parallel. The healthcare reform fight has been raging for decades; so has the fight for equality for LGBT folks (and for many others). In both cases, we see in this administration a better opportunity than we've long had for real change.
When we LGBT folks lamented that the President doesn't support marriage equality -- rather, civil unions -- many, many folks told us (including here), "Hey, President Obama supports you far more than Bush ever did. This is good! See the best of it! It's a step forward!" All of this has merit. I and many others have, in many cases, done our best to see the brighter side of reality and work with what we have -- and push to find and develop every ally we can -- to get what's realistic passed in the current environment.
Well, our wingnuts are now everyone's wingnuts. Aren't they lovely? Now a whole bunch more people have a good idea of what we LGBT people go through. Now we get to face a similar -- though I'd say comparatively more receptive -- environment when it comes to healthcare reform. We also have a larger, more committed corps of activists.
So where does the compromise land, and what's really possible with healthcare reform now? Look to the LGBT equality fight for clues, folks. You have large, entrenched power elites only too happy to benefit from the status quo while we subsidize their disdain with little other choice. As with marriage equality in California, the forces against us energized the Crazy Corps and defined the message before we did -- and may yet win because of that this time, like they did in California.
We have states which have gotten farther than the national picture on healthcare reform, like Massachusetts did with Chapter 58 in 2006. Gee, wasn't Massachusetts the pioneer in same-sex marriage? Seems like another parallel, though Massachusetts has full statewide equality. Chapter 58 is far from single-payer and far from perfect. But is it a step forward? Yes. Is it the right step forward? We're still finding out. How will nationwide healthcare reform look in September or October? And will howling that no public option should kill a deal for ANY steps forward do us good? I don't know.
What I'm certain of is that when I express dismay that an administration and Congressional majority I helped elect now seems more interested in my dollars than my welfare -- be that in terms of healthcare or equality under the law -- it's right and patriotic to express dissent, and it's my hope that in the future healthcare activists look at the dismay, outrage, and occasional disgust of their LGBT brethren when it comes to this administration and this Congress and commiserate, because we are now with healthcare where we so often are with LGBT equality.
This drawing of parallels in activism is, of course, imperfect. They're not quite the same. But the fights have so many similar elements, particularly the frustrations. Many folks believe fervently in the fight to get the closest we can to a nation in which we have both full equality for all - including equal access to healthcare. I know many LGBT folks are putting their all into the healthcare fight now. I hope many of the activists so dedicated to today's healthcare fight develop a new perspective that encourages them to be as committed and active for LGBT equality down the road. Maine, Washington state, and California will need all the help they can get -- not to mention federal efforts to expand equality -- and we LGBT folks pray that you enter our fight with similar passion and energy. We need you. We all need one another.