It’s been close to 24 years since a small group of lesbian and gay Hawaiian’s had the audacity to think they could access the 1,100 rights and obligations afforded to “married” people. Those of us working for employment, housing, credit and public accommodation equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people saw “marriage” as tangential to our struggle, and frankly unattainable. Therefore, at first, many in the movement didn’t focus much energy on winning marriage rights.
However individual couples across the country kept stepping forward to challenge their state marriage laws and at the same time get the organized movement for LGBT rights to take them seriously. The tipping point for LGBT movement folks getting on board was that these challenges to the marriage status quo were opening up deep conversations with our straight families and friends, because everyone could relate on some level to what marriage meant – it is part of our common cultural experience. For some to consider marriage for lesbian and gay people meant recognizing, for the first time, that our intimate relationships carried the same depth of feeling as their relationship with their spouse. For others, it created a concrete and public way for them to support their LGBT friends and family. The profound national shift in attitude we have witnessed about marriage equality, is at its core, based on these one-on-one conversations.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a very difficult lift and credit needs to go to the many thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations that made marriage equality their focus for the last two decades. Tactics included a very sophisticated national media plan to tell our personal stories, and state-by-state legislative and legal work coordinated across multiple regional and national organizations. But, the overall strategy behind this work was to provide people with the support and information they needed to be empowered to have hard conversations with the people closest to them, so that together we could change our culture.
Many of us in the LGBT community never thought we’d live to see this day. Together with our allies we have all accomplished something thought to be impossible.
The question for today is what impossible dream is up next, what are working people demanding today. Could it be full employment and wage equality for low-wage, immigrant, women and LGBT workers? Something else? I am hopeful that we in the progressive movement will take these lessons to heart, listen to what is being said, and shoot for the moon!
Do you have a news tip you would like to share? Would you like to contribute to The Left Hook? Email us at LeftHookBlog@gmail.com
No Comments