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Indybay Feature

The Largely-Unasked, 64 Kiloton Question Regarding Gay Marriage

by Funny, No One Asks...
& O! How the Question Burns
So, you know, the headlines are great, and so is the obvious happiness of all the newlyweds. Human happiness is often a worthy end in itself. But the nagging question won't let me relax and celebrate, and it only nags the worse because no one seems to ask:

Did Gavin Newsom just help George Bush get "re"-elected?

I mean, suddenly "Gruesome Newsom" is the hero of the local left, striking a body blow of doubt at an erstwhile-emergent progressive alternative ("Would Matt have done the same, or instead gone to the right to appease centrist interests?" I've heard it asked much.) At the same time, he hands the Republicans the very kind of wedge issue that is their only real hope in a real contest. (xref Pete Wilson's illustrious career...)

Now, there's justice delayed and all that. On the other hand, there is also such thing as timing being a part of strategy. Would it have been so wrong to wait one more year, for when Kerry (or whatever) was president and there were an actual chance that this thing would fly?

Or is, in fact, the timing perfect?

Not to be paranoid or anything, but stranger things have happened, recently.... the last time Georgie boy tried to get elected, in fact....

Meanwhile, Gav talks about getting back to the business of the city. I think we ought to watch him reeeeeeal close on that....
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by Aleena
You seem to presume that Bush and his cretins woudn't have made gay marriage a wedge issue, or that there wouldn't be a backlash--if only Newsom hadn't married us.

But the fact is, the die was cast after Iraq didn't pan out and the "recovery" failed to impress anybody--Bush had no choice but to energize his ultra-conservative religious base with red meat. He promised the Christian Coalition in early February that he would speak out in favor of the amendment, which he would have blamed on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court if he didn't have us to blame.

With the "brushfire" of activisim now sweeping the queer nation, as some of the old gray conservatives have called it, at least this time around gays and lesbians are up in arms and willing to defend ourselves. I don't believe we would have seen the same activism we see today if Newsom hadn't started that fire: every night, every television news viewer sees another couple or two marry, putting a face on what had been, until three weeks ago, an abstract and impersonal debate; every night, queers in smaller places are inspired by our success. We are giving them hope, and that has inspired them to act in their own communities.

Barney Frank wouldn't have been able to do that.
by simplistic...
That's what Naderites said when the Gore people blamed them for the 2000 election debacle.... Personally, I thought it was simply a case of GB's daddy's connections.
by Funny, No One Answers
Another example, funny how the marriage people get so quiet so quick.
by so much as asked ya so
but oh the names that were, and are, called.........
by there were so many comments last march
and threads and threads about what a glorious victory was at hand.

where's all that now?

and when is the gay "leadership" going to admit its mistake? (let alone change its ways)....................

oh, so many questions...............
by they weren't prepared
to lose.

Just like they weren't with the military issue.

Why do you keep following "leaders" like that?
by for answers that never come:
could it be that the original ideas generating the questions were bullshit, and the questions exposed them as such?

a question worth pondering.....
by dave
we would be much better off right now. this was a desaster for the gay rights movement. and we only have our selves to blame (at least that is what Diane Finstine is telling us) but IMC does not want us to be too upset at her, or god forbid to
go down and protest at her office about her gay bashing in the news
by please
protest feinstein to your heart's content, and please, start with her homophobia and keep going.

but why leave gruesome newsom out of it? cuz he looked at ya while he did ya?

verily, how to protest all the worthy politicians with so few numbers, so little time.....
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