Alright, it’s time to get serious. You may think in my role as your gay best friend that I’m only good as an accessory, to spit out fashion advice, but this is about to get real because Her Gay Best Friend is getting political!
President Obama came out in support of gay marriage today in an interview on ABC news and the response from most liberals has been overwhelmingly positive. My Facebook newsfeed is blowin’ up with praise for the president’s action ranging from people pledging their votes to him to people expressing their utmost content with his actions. As much as I’d like to join this chorus of praise, especially being that it brings me enormous comfort to know that my president is in support of my right to marry, there are many silences that this so-called momentous occasion presents.
Gay marriage does not exist in a vacuum. Gay rights do not exist in a vacuum. Human rights do not exist in a vacuum. Structural problems lay at the root of every single problem in this nation, and all other nations around the world. Is it a great leap in the right direction that the president supports gay marriage? Yes. Does it create immense silences? Of course. We fail to question how many gay men and women have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Libya, and all over the globe in the wake of our war on “terrorism.” We fail to question how many gay people will go tonight without food, water, and shelter right within our own borders. We fail to question how many gay Central Americans have come over into our borders asking for refuge, just to be cast aside as “others,” to mow our lawns, to work in our factories and to live in fear of being caught and kicked out. We fail to question our economic model, in which the needs of pursuing the greatest profit have taken priority over helping the greatest number achieve happiness.
My issues don’t exist in a vacuum, and no one’s should. I’m happy, I’m thrilled! My president finally accepts my rights to love as anyone else may love. But does this let him off the hook? No. There are countless other problems that need to be addressed in this country and further, into the rest of the world. We can’t go on accepting minute change as momentous progress. It is incremental progress. Is it something? Yes. Is it enough? Never.
The most I can ask from you is that you take these words into consideration. Do some research for yourself. Don’t tell your gay best friend how happy he/she should be at this recent change; don’t tell YOURSELF that you should be satisfied. There’s a lot of work to be done, so take your gay best friend, take ALL your friends, and get started.