The sun will come out . . .

It's interesting. In the days since I posted about National Coming Out Day and the National Equality March, the gay community has entered into a rather heated conversation.

A lot of this conversation revolves around President Obama's speech at the Annual Human Right's Campaign Dinner on Saturday night. President Obama re-iterated his promises to overturn Don't Ask Don't Tell and the (so called) Defense of Marriage Act along with signing hate crimes legislation and employment discrimination protections for GLBT people.

It seems the gay community is divided pretty much down the middle. There are the people who are happy with Obama's promises and think that the GLBT community should be satisfied to "wait its turn" while the president focuses on the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, healthcare reform, and the lousy economy. Then there are those who think that action is coming too slowly and that our community shouldn't settle for "tomorrow"; but should demand "NOW!"

As for myself, I have to say "wait until it's a better time" reeks of "the check is in the mail." It's an empty promise used to avoid confrontation over an issue that they don't want to discuss.

GLBT equality is just as important an issue as all the rest. It's insulting and demeaning to imply that equal rights for American Citizens is a lower priority than anything else. The assumption that all men are created equal is the basis of our country. It should be the FIRST priority. Anything less is unacceptable.

Would the African-American community have asked Rosa Parks to sit back in the rear of the bus until the Cold War was over? Would they have asked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to postpone his dream until after Viet Nam? Of course not! Why then are our own leaders telling us to wait?

A lot of people are saying that Obama and the Democratic controlled congress are gearing up for the next election; that they need to be careful now, and not do anything TOO controversial until they've gotten reelected. That's a load of bullshit. You know what? There's ALWAYS going to be another election coming. And if we buy that as a stall tactic now, they'll expect us to roll over for it next time, and the time after. If we continue to wait until equality is convenient for everyone else, we will NEVER get it

The thing is. Nobody should be asking us to wait! Gay Rights are GOOD for the country! Allowing gays to serve openly in the military would immediately help the war effort because it'd mean the Armed Forces would stop losing so many good people. In my last blog I talked about how much gay couples have to pay to approximate what straight couples take for granted. Imagine if all those gay couples could stop paying that money to lawyers and were able to spend it on goods and services. Wouldn't that help the overall economy? And when we've got to pay the "marriage penalty" tax that straight couples have to pay, wouldn't that benefit the treasury of the United States?

And then you start looking at little factoids like "Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country". Wow, I guess gay marriage won't destroy the country and ring the death knell for "traditional marriage" after all.

I'm sorry folks. The HRC has it wrong. We need to leave the singing of "Tomorrow" to Annie, and start demanding "TODAY!" from our leaders. Be they leaders of the GLBT movement, or our elected leaders at the City, County, State, and Federal level.

The squeaky wheel get's the grease. So we're going to need to start squeaking. A LOT!

I'm an AMERICAN!

I pay my TAXES!

I demand my RIGHTS!

NOW!