If Valentine's Day were an occasion where one was allowed to be as
romantic as possible then surely New Year's is the day when we can
unabashedly get sentimental. We look back through that human veil of
tears as the calendar pages turn in cinematic splendor as if out of a
Douglas Sirk movie.
It was a bipolar year to be sure. We endured a long political campaign
that was a nail-bitter until the end. And despite the fact that as the
country woke up, finally woke up and did the right thing, we were also
reminded that as gay people, as fabulous as we often are, we sit just
outside the welcoming table. America is a religious country, a country of full of Joe the Plumbers. Essentially good people, they are gripped by fear of things being different and they have a belief, a mistaken moral belief that we are country ruled under God, and the word from those ancient fictions is that gay is immoral, or at the least the "act" of doing something homosexual.
We have come a long way. The abuse by police throughout this country as depicted in the historical footage in the film, "Milk" shows what once was. And despite the fact that we have gained enormous economic and social power, we still do not have the basic rights afforded every heterosexual in this country, especially the right to marry. We all know that it is simply a matter of time. what the film and the documentary about the life of Harvey Milk clearly showed us is that we need leaders, people who can motivate, articulate and finally produce the desired political gains. The failure of Prop. 8 was as much about the lack of vision on the part of the people producing the commercials and providing the strategy to persuade people as it was the imminent success of the people on the other side of the issue.
For now, we celebrate the mere fact of being alive and living in such interesting times.
Happy New Year.














