|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Dear Todd, You write about your "disappointment" with Mr. Clinton. I've been disappointed with Mr. Clinton for almost six years. Even though he has done more to help us than any other President, he has also broken promises and even worked against us (for example, in signing DOMA). I suppose I was naive to believe he would be more, would do more, that he would follow his heart and act with courage and integrity. Too much to ask of a President? I suppose, but it still seems reasonable to ask it. Now, however, we are faced with a difficult choice. The religious "right" has hated Clinton (and tried to depose him) from the beginning. And one of the primary reasons was Mr. Clinton's sympathy for God's lesbian and gay children. Mr. Clinton has paid a price to be our friend. We must not forget that. This moment is not about "a return to morality in the White House." It is about the fundamentalist's determination to gain power over the nation, to superimpose it's fundamentalist values on us all. They've tried everything to destroy Mr. Clinton. In his lies about Lewinsky, they finally found a way to remove him from office or to terminally damage his presidency. I don't approve the President's sexual failures. I'm sorry that he lied. I can't defend him or defend his actions, but there is a greater evil here, greater even than sex and lies...It is the evil of fundamentalism with its urge to purge, using the President's sin to replace him with someone who will invariably work to end our rights and drive us back into the closet, if not worse. It's a tragic moment for us, in spite of my determination to be hopeful in all things. To deny this tragic moment is to play Pollyanna's "glad game." The fundamentalists have won a powerful victory by using the President's own sin to destroy his presidency. Now, if we turn against the President, who has apologized and asked for forgiveness, we ally ourselves with our adversary. If we don't turn against the President, we look like we are tolerating his intolerable behavior. I don't believe Mr. Clinton's presidency can be saved. I'm afraid it doesn't matter now if he resigns, is impeached, or is just censured. He's lost his moral authority and has become as one writer said, "the lamest of lame ducks." Now, If the "right" elects an even stronger Congress and if the "right" elects a president, we must be ready for the worst. Already we are hunted down and hounded out of the military. Already we have lost the 1047 rights and protections that go with marriage. Already we can be fired for our sexual orientation in 41 states and we have lost all hope for changing that soon with the tabling of ENDA, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. Already, governors in California and other states have used their executive orders to end adoption and foster parenting in their states. Now, Tennessee's Supreme Court is deciding whether we can even share custody of our own children. Already, we are among the primary victims of harassment and hate crime in cities and states across the nation. Already, our teen suicide rate is 7 times higher than heterosexual teenagers. Already, our churches (with wonderful local congregational exceptions) have decided not to ordain us or even accept us into full unqualified membership. So, if it does get worse (or even if it gets better, a prospect I can't imagine for the short term) we have to be prepared. We must believe that God and truth are on our side and that God and truth will eventually prevail. We must believe in ourselves. We are God's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered children. God has created us and God loves us exactly as we are. We must believe in the goodwill and common sense of the people of this nation and pray that they will not be taken in by the false and inflammatory anti- homosexual rhetoric of the "right." (And there are polls showing that we are making progress in that regard.) We must believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is not a "Christian nation" nor should it become one. This is not a theocracy, but a democracy. The church must not rule the state. Separation of church and state must prevail. The Bible (let alone the fundamentalist's understanding of the Bible and the six verses they misuse to condemn us) is not the final authority in this land. Our nation is a nation built on tolerance (not intolerance), on inclusion (not exclusion), on diversity and acceptance and compromise. We must not let fundamentalist Christians set the agenda and ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while claiming a new authority based on their view of the Scriptures. We must refuse to acquiesce, to give in, to accept our second-class- citizenship, to go silently into that dark night. We must refuse equally to hate our adversaries, to demean and dehumanize them (as they do us), to fight back with the violence of tongue, fist, or heart (as King says so clearly). Instead, we must discover the Soulforce (Satyagraha) principles of relentless nonviolent resistance and put them into practice in our private lives and in our life together. I am convinced that truth will prevail. I am positive and hopeful and encouraged in so many ways. But, frankly, I am also afraid that we are our own worst enemies. Our friend Michelangelo Signorile wrote about our complacency in September's OUT magazine.
Mike's critics call him an "alarmist," a "chicken little," a "Mr. Doomsday." I say he's right on target. There is a war being waged by fundamentalists to end our rights forever. Unless we mobilize ourselves in time, unless we discover and practice Soulforce (relentless nonviolent resistance) we will lose that war and before things get better, I'm afraid they will get a whole lot worse. Mel OK to forward or print. For more information about Soulforce see www.melwhite.org |