Some thoughts on the Supreme Court ruling, or, lube up that slope!

[hrj]

I agree whole-heartedly with those who have been uncomfortable with the single-minded focus in the last decade on the marriage equality movement. There are some extremely valid points that many of the direct benefits tend to accrue to the more privileged segments of the LGBT community.(The simple fact of having financial resources, job benefits, etc. that might be shared with a spouse is a privilege not enjoyed by all.) And I am fully aware that there are segments of the non-straight-cis-monogamous community that derive no particular benefit from the availability of marriage (although I have quibbles with a "community" defined as "everyone except a specific narrow category", but that's a different column). And I absolutely believe that job security, freedom from social and legal harassment, access to health services, and other factors have a far greater impact on everyone's day to day well being than access to marriage.

But…

I also believe whole-heartedly that the overwhelming, focused, high-powered drive to achieve marriage equality was perhaps the best strategic move that could have been made. Because in the end the struggle will not be won solely by truth or right or justice. It will be won by strategy. It will also be won by the secretary who organizes the bullet-points in The Gay Agenda (™). It will also be won by the for-profit theme park that hires the contractors to build The Slippery Slope thrill ride. And it will also be won by the entrepreneur who gets Non-Toxic, Gluten-free, Minty-fresh Slope Lube into the impulse buy displays at the grocery store checkout.

In the grand scheme of things, marriage equality was an "easy" sell. It's mom and apple pie. It's Valentine's day and 4th of July fireworks. I know it didn't seem easy in the process, but the biggest thing going for the movement was the raw emotional appeal of the desire of two human beings who love each other, and who want to share their lives completely for the rest of their lives, to want to enjoy the same rituals, the same acceptance, and the same legal rights and privileges as everyone else around them. And it had going for it the utterly illogical house of cards that was the supposed case against marriage equality. We saw time and again that when opponents were allowed to state their case clearly and in detail they provided some of the strongest arguments for marriage equality that could be made.

And I think that marriage equality was one of the most powerful tools we had to stand before society and say, "In all our diversity, we're just like you, in all your diversity. Here is a point where we intersect. Witness and recognize our humanity." That parade of images of loving couples, poignant stories, and ecstatic celebrations broke through the walls in ways that arguments about wages and job security, about housing, about health care couldn't have done. (Witness all the ongoing incomprehension around those topics that we can't seem to make a dent in.)

And our opponents were right. Marriage equality is the camel's nose in the tent, the wedge splitting the log, the first skid down that slippery slope, the first few flakes in the avalanche. It achieved a symbolic victory that a more practical, less focused, and less emotionally fraught campaign would have found far harder to achieve. But it will mean a lot less unless we take that momentum--that human connection--that marriage equality gave us and move forward to claim full humanity, full equality, and full rights for all people in all fields of endeavor.

So lube up that slope and let's get sliding!

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I love every word of this.

[marygriggs.livejournal.com]

Very well said!

And lube now comes in convenient powder that we can mix ourselves for all the slippery slopes we have to travel (http://www.astrolube.com/instructions.htm)!

Mary

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (And I always do a double-take at your icon! As intended.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

That is an amazing icon.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (My specialty is tortuously extended metaphors!)

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

Despite having reached an age where a Slip 'n' Slide looks less like fun and more like a good way to break something important, this post makes me really wish I had one plus an industrial-sized bucket of Non-Toxic, Gluten-free, Minty-fresh Slope Lube.

[lferion]

So very, very well said.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It seems like such a small thing, though.