Almost three years ago this week I wrote my very first story for this paper. The story, so past due now, concerned a ballot proposition in California which would attempt to codify the definition of marriage in its State constitution.
The now infamous Proposition 8 was a major setback for the same-sex cause in California and deeply stung many in the GLBT camp across the country.
At the time, it was billed as a monumental joust in the same-sex battle. Big money flowed in from both camps and the fighters stepped forward to tap gloves. It was a prize fight.
And in the lead up to that spar, I spoke with Justine Hollingshead , the director of the Center for GLBT Programs and Services.
To this day, I remember her sense of optimism. It wasn’t necessarily for North Carolina or N.C . State in particular, but it was this sense that justice was about to be delivered. The pending feeling of deliverance was palpable.
The fight began the morning of November 8 and the turnout of registered Democrats was spectacular; euphoria and victory should have filled the air. But alas, not so fast, a stunner was quickly emerging. The same voters who sent the nation’s first African-American president to the White House weren’t so keen on the idea of Bob and Lou—give us Sue, they said.
And so, it was: Proposition 8 was adopted.
It was the very first thing I thought of when I saw those inhuman images of hate speech last week. As much as it would be comforting to sugar coat the reality, there is still a large portion of the population that views the GLBT community as perverted and unworthy of most societal privileges.
Likewise, this conservative population isn’t a minority. North Carolinians will visit the polls next year and will likely deliver a condemnation of same-sex marriage in the form of a constitutional amendment to abolish it permanently.
The writing is on the wall—the glimmer of light that burned so bright just a few years ago is being mired in a cloud of intolerance.
It’s not to say the advocates of the GLBT cause are moot or the tide will remain forever low. This is simply an acknowledgement that the Bible Belt activists are successfully pressing their version of natural law into the fabric of this state.
They are handing the GLBT movement body blows that it mustn’t forget. The most foolish action at this moment would be to pretend like these offenses didn’t sting. They were heinous and they should bite. The advocates of this cause need to take this feeling and remember it, now and when the populist sentiment carries the same-sex measure into the North Carolina Constitution.
These issues aren’t amendable, but the fight against the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal legislation barring most same-sex privileges, is just beginning. This is the true battleground and the only place this movement is going to realistically live to fight another day.
That’s where this bottled disgust needs to exert its emotion, the one place where universal change can waterfall to the rest of the country.
