Victory mixed with sorrow

As we all celebrate the historic victory of President Obama, and the end of racial politics in America, we should pause to consider the fate of another oppressed minority in America. A minority that we as a nation still discriminate against without fear of recriminiation. Like the shout of "nigger" on a dusty Birmingham street in 1962, we endure in silence the shouts of "faggot" and "queer" in our midst. Our silence is a stain on our national character. This is the last great civil rights issue of our time and the retrenchment of the forces of hate against our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community has never been stronger.

The denial of 14th amendment rights to 10% of the American population simply because of their sexual orientation harkens back to the miscegenation laws in the south which prohibited mixed-race marriages. The last of these was struck down in 1967 when the Supreme Court affirmed the 14th Amendment right to interracial couples. Why can't we, as a nation, see through the fear and hatred of gays and lesbians, fear that blinds us to the affirmative nature of LGBT relationships and allow them the same rights the rest of us enjoy.

I am sad today because such hatred of the "other" still infects our body politic. Many continue to sit idly by as discrimination and hate rage in our midst. Hate driven by people who, due to ignorance or religious bigotry, believe that their fellow citizens who think or act differently than the they do should be subject to discrimination.

These people shout about the "defense of marriage" as if two men in love with one another is a threat to their own union. Can the existence of a lesbian married couple really cause your marriage to fail? How? We as Americans stand by and do not shout from the rooftops "This is wrong! This is un-American! We are all equal under the law!" Many of us stand on the sidelines because we are not gay. As Bishop Desmond Tutu so eloquently put it

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

We would be wise to remember the remonstrations of another religious figure, Pastor Martin Niemöller who penned the poem "First They Came..."

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

So while we raise a toast to President Obama and revel in the most improbable of Presidential victories, never forget the bigotry that still infects our nation and manifests itself, like a cancer returning from remission, to weaken our Republic and sap our collective spirit.