Not helpless anymore

E.J. Graff has two interesting items up on the Internet today. The first at TPM Café is called Whither Same-Sex Marriage? It points to her second article Marital Blitz in the American Prospect.

The American Prospect piece is especially interesting.

Graff writes:

Here’s the good news. First, 2004’s DOMA and SuperDOMA amendments were misread. They did not represent an anti-gay backlash; in fact, public opinion toward
lesbians and gay men is warming more every day. Second, the “gay agenda” now has a new plan for winning over the long haul. For years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) legal groups have been the most successful branches of what’s loosely called the gay movement. As a result, there’s been a winning air war -- but too few ground troops to solidify some of those wins. Now the political groups are catching up. LGBT organizations have developed a strategic plan to win marriage equality -- and along the way, anti-discrimination laws, zero-tolerance for school gay-bashing, and more.

Here in Kansas we’re still struggling for our most basic rights, but the passage of the anti-marriage amendment last April, bad as it was, did us a favor. That attack by the Religious Right forced us to work together, and it opened up the eyes of many moderates and straight allies.

We realized that in Kansas we have “too few ground troops” to win, and now we’re determined to change that. That realization and the anger and frustration we felt when the ban on marriage and civil unions passed led directly to the formation of the Kansas Equality Coalition.

We never intend to be that helpless again.