I know that many of you can’t shake a sense of déjà vu since your vote—you know, that feeling that you’ve witnessed or been part of something before. Certainly, your vote had an eerie metaphorical familiarity—someone standing at the doorway of a great institution, protecting it from people who shouldn’t be there. But if the rest seems a little fuzzy it’s probably because you’re confused about the role you played.
See, you thought you were God’s warrior defending the institution of marriage from gay people. But really, you were George Wallace blocking the entrance to the University of Alabama.
In 1963, Governor George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school. He used the same arguments to keep you out of school that you used to keep us out of marriage. He used the same logic. He even used the same language.
I’m sure many of you are looking for a way to shake that awful feeling you’ve revisited a shameful part of history. I think there is, but it requires going further into that awful feeling, further into that history.
As many of you know, George Wallace, one of the biggest racists who ever lived, at some point, stopped, and saw your humanity. At some point he stopped and thought, “I have no right to take your rights away.” At some point he stopped and said, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” And devoted his life to undoing his deeds.
My guess is that if you want that unsettling feeling to go away, you probably need to complete your experience of deja vu and act more like the guy who once stood in the doorway of a great institution to stop you from coming in.
Sincerely,
Everyone Who’s Been Locked Out for No Good Reason
Hi Mike,
When I read what you say, one part of me wants to laugh, because you’re funny. The other part of me wants to cry, because you’re telling the truth.
I’m in Australia, my boyfriend was allowed to immigrate here as my partner, but our government does not even have Gay Marriage on their policy agenda (which they admit) and they are the left wing party. So yeah, I started a website about it, and I’m going to write to everyone and publish their responses. It seems as though there is no transparent movement here in Australia, or possibly the world, for Gay Marriage. It’s bits of sporadic progress instituted by random people at random times.
Anyway, any advice you could give me on how to get something done, or at least as many viewers to my site as you have to yours, that would be great.
Best,
Andrew
November 25th, 2008 at 6:22 am[...] By holding them accountable I don’t mean BLAME. I mean holding a mirror up. The way MLK did to that part of white America that objected to black civil rights. Mirrors have a way of double-checking our self-perceptions. If I were the editors of the Advocate, I would have put an African-American clutching his Yes on 8 ballot on the cover, looking into a mirror, and seeing George Wallace smiling back. [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:44 am