At no time, however, did any of we "older gays" ever think of "gay rights." We always rested our movement on human rights, not a distinct body of rights that we alone were entitled to.
I urge you to look more deeply into this. Maybe sit down with someone over 60 who was out in 1978 to get a feel for what things were like then.
Isn't "gay rights" what Harvey Milk advocated? That's what I got from the movie last night. I wasn't involved in the Castro in the early 70s obviously, so I can only assume the story told by Gus Van Sant was factually accurate.
The points where I see Prop 6 and Prop 8 merging is the religious right fighting gay people for the very right to exist, to live happily, to live in peace with whomever gays loved.
This is the point of parallel that I found strikingly and eerily similar and nothing has changed from the Christian-right’s perspective to live us alone - they still persecute us.
The Christian-right uses "children" as their device to spread their bigotry and hate.
The gay community
should have been ready for the Christian-rights tactics - as the Christian-right used the very same tactics the last time - thirty years ago.
That's what I'm angry about. But the masses were duped this time by the lies spread by the bigoted, homophobic and hateful Christian-right and we weren't prepared for "them" this time with our own “children” defense.
My anger stems from the fact that older generation of gays and politicians should have known the Christian-right would used the “child” tactic and fight them back head-to-head on the "child" issue just as Harvey Milk did to John Brigg in a debate in Orange County, California in 1978 – in the Christian-right’s own backyard!
We should have taken the debate on with the Christian-right head-to-head using "children" and we would have won.
But, we relied on the hope that our "friends" (gay-friendly str8s) would prevail - and we were sorely wrong.
So, in that sense, "gay rights" lost on November 4th 2008 in California and I'm angry about that.
How embarrassing is it for the possibility that Iowans will be able to marry before Californians - Iowans for Pete's sake? I mean, good for them, but the "thought" is California is way more progressive - and it's shamefully not true because lies about "children" and gays prevailed all thanks to the "peace and loving" Morman Chruch and the Catholic Church.
As Harvey Milk stated in his 1978 debate in Orange County - if children were influenced by adult behavior - there'd be a lot more Nuns running around today.
