New York City wasn't ready in 1971-72. The issue was job discrimination and it was a major ordeal to put a human rights measure that would protect gays before the city council. The police department wanted an exemption. The fire department said it couldn't have gays either. The Catholic church which was always present in New York politics chimed in. New York City wasn't ready then. The state of North Carolina wasn't ready on May 8 but voters in urban areas around Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham said they were ready.
Progress is slow. It shouldn't take a lifetime.
When I join with other gays for my relationship and my family to be legally recognized the same as anyone else's, what I'm demanding is a basic human right. I'm not asking for gay marriage and I'm not even sure what that is. I'm asking for marriage, the same as anyone else's. When I make that clear, I feel that I go farther.
What is it about me, how am I different, that I should be content to go from state to state, one at a time, trying to obtain a basic human right when this right should be available to me in any of the 50 states where I might choose to live? What if I live in a state where my right to marry will be a long time coming? What if I live in a state where it never comes?
Why should I accept the idea that states should decide whether I can marry or not? Why should I listen to apologists who tell me it's a Tenth Amendment issue or a question of how things are, not how they ought to be? "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" are in America's founding documents as unalienable rights. When one of the states denies the rights I'm endowed with as a human being, it's the Federal Government's duty to take corrective action.
Equal rights for everyone is a baseline position in any progressive agenda. I'm not asking for the moon. When I look at what's happening in states like Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, and many others where rabid Republicans have dug in, I can't say that I see the states as a vanguard for the expansion of equal rights for everyone. (Have they ever been a vanguard?) Women should be aware of that. Depending on the states is unreliable. It doesn't give the gay population in the states where there's no chance for them any reason to engage in the fight for their own rights. I'm done with conservatives controlling the narrative and the agenda that seeks to minimize the Federal Government as if it, alone, is threatening to crush our freedom. I want freedom from the tyranny of state governments, business corporations, and ruthless individuals who exercise their influence for their own advantage to the detriment of others. Only the Federal Government and the people themselves can stop such tyranny.
Now I've been around long enough to observe and study politics to know that leaders need to be led. I don't feel like waiting for someone to evolve, especially an intellectual who should know better. I don't quit. I don't flounce. But I don't hold my tongue and patiently wait either.
12:15 PM PT: Various media outlets in the US are reporting that President Barack Obama endorsed the right of same-sex couples to marry today. This makes Obama the first US President in history to back the right of same-sex couples to marry. The news was reported on MSNBC and in the Chicago Tribune.