November 3, 2007

The Audacity of Irony

Obama’s speech in South Carolina Friday — with commentary by a lesbian reacting to each line as it comes.

A Challenge for Our Time

What you mean “our,” Kemo Sabe?

It’s a special honor to be here in Clarendon County. Because Clarendon County is the place that showed me and showed America that when ordinary people come together, they can do extraordinary things. That’s the Clarendon County I know. I know how sixty years ago, the NAACP’s James Hinton dared to ask why white children could ride buses to school but black children had to walk.

Now, when do the gay children get to ride the bus — instead of being thrown under it?

I know how Reverend J.A. DeLaine, a preacher and teacher in Summerton, heard that call and joined with Levi Pearson, a father who was sick and tired of seeing his children walk nine miles to school, and with Harry and Eliza Briggs and more than a dozen other Black parents to challenge unequal education.

George Wallace blocked the doors in 1963. Can we talk about the inequality of civil unions now?

I know that because of that challenge, Harry Briggs lost his job at the local service station, Eliza Briggs lost hers at a local hotel, and Reverend DeLaine’s home was burned to the ground while the fire department stood by and watched.

Let me tell you about Carla Grayson and Adrianne Neff, who were burned out of their home in Montana just five years ago. Or about the 32 MCC worshippers who were burned alive in New Orleans in 1973 because some bigot didn’t like queers. Or– oh, hell, just go watch this.

It would have been easy for them to stay home. To heed the voices of caution and convenience that said, “wait,” “the timing isn’t right,” or “the country just isn’t ready.” It would have been easy for them to give in to the fears that no doubt kept them awake some nights.

… “wait,” … “the timing isn’t right” … “the country just isn’t ready” … Gosh, where have we heard that before?

But I know that because they were willing to overcome their fears and reach for a larger dream, the Supreme Court overturned “separate but equal,” and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Yet “separate but equal” is still OK when it comes to queers, right?

And I know that I stand on their shoulders…

As you stand on the heads of the LGBT Americans.

…that their courage and sacrifice six decades ago makes it possible for me to run today for President of the United States.

. . .

I know South Carolina has the worst high school dropout rate in America. I know that all across this nation, one out of every four children go to schools just like J. V. Martin, and take away the same message that we don’t care enough about their education to do better by them.

Well, I’m getting the message that you don’t care enough about LGBT Americans to do anything for us, other than maintain the status quo.

I know that America today is still blind to the poverty in our midst, and that we still tolerate Jena justice for some and Scooter Libby justice for others.

Just like “we” tolerate privilege for heterosexuals, and sloppy seconds for queers.

I know that Black parents in Clarendon are still having to go to court to give their children an equal education – fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education.

I guess we have to wait another ten years before we can say: “And same-sex couples are still having to go to court to demand equal rights fifty years after Loving v. Virginia.”

There is another side of Clarendon County, another side of America, still waiting for what Harry and Eliza Briggs hoped and struggled for. The hope that our children’s destinies aren’t written before they are born.

Our children’s destinies are written before they are born; if they turn out straight, everything’s ducky. But if they turn out gay, bi, or transgendered… not so much. But then, you don’t really believe it’s inborn, do you, Barry?

The hope that one day the world as it is and the world as it should be might be one and the same.

No chance, as long as you keep throwing us over for the bigots.

That is why I stand before you today as a candidate for President of the United States of America. I am running because I refuse to accept that the way it is, is the way it has to be. I refuse to accept it when I hear adults say things like “these kids can’t learn” or “these kids come from tough backgrounds” or “these kids are too far behind.” We need to start treating “these kids” like “our kids.”

How about treating LGBT people as if they were Good As You?

We know why this matters. It’s not just that a good education is essential to helping the children of today compete more effectively as the workers of tomorrow. It’s that the promise of a good education makes it possible for every child to transcend the barriers of race and class and background and achieve their God-given potential.

You don’t have to tell us how hard it is to transcend the barriers of bigotry. And stop bringing God into it.

That’s why Harry and Eliza Briggs put their names on that lawsuit. That’s why so many others risked so much to give their children an equal education. That’s my story. That’s what the American story is supposed to be about.

So glad your story has a happy ending. Ours has not.

. . .

Now, I’ve heard that some folks aren’t sure America is ready for an African-American president…

I’m ready for an African-American president. The problem is, he or she has to be the right president, not the right African-American president.

…so let me be clear: I never would have begun this campaign if I weren’t confident I could win.

Have you seen your poll numbers lately?

. . .

But you see, I am not asking anyone to take a chance on me.

Good, because I’d take a chance on that big-mouthed knucklehead Joe Biden before I’d take a chance on you.

. . .

I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations. Just imagine what we could do as partners in an Obama administration.

We could sit down with the homophobic bigots you’re “reaching out” to and listen to them condemn us for the “curse of homosexuality.”

Imagine a President who was raised like I was by a single mom who had to work and go to school and raise her kids and accept food stamps for a while.

I don’t have to imagine such a president — we had exactly that in Bill Clinton.

. . .

Imagine a President who fought each day to narrow the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Yeah, imagine. Too bad I can’t imagine you being that president.

. . .

So today, sixty years after James Hinton issued his challenge, I want to issue a challenge of my own. If you’re tired of the politics of fear and division…

To which you have contributed, categorically.

…if you’re tired of a government that stands idly by while our schools go underfunded…

Are you promising to end this faith-based school-voucher business, which is only helping to gut the public school system? Unless that’s what you’re swearing to do, there’s not much you can say to someone in a state where voters consistently support nearly every school bond measure on the ballot (83% of all measures submitted between 2001 and 2006, if you’re interested).

…our children go unemployed…

Our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered citizens can be fired from their jobs in 37 states just for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered… and/or — even if the “new and improved” ENDA passes — just for being perceived as “lesbians and gay men” — and heteros — “who may not conform to their employer’s idea of how a man or woman should look and act.”