I'm sure many of you by now have heard the rumblings about Obama's pick of Rick Warren to preform the invocation at the inaguration. Rick Warren isn't just the pastor at mega church Saddleback Church in southern California. He wrote the bestseller "The Purpose Driven Life." He's also a hateful prick.
Sure, it's very easy for me to be disappointed by Obama's choice, but I'm even more disappointed by his defense of his choice. Fisrt, for those of you uncertain of my problem with Rick Warren, some highlights of Warren's ideology and practice:
-Warren believes my marriage to Jeannine would be akin to my marriage to my father, or my 3 year old niece's marriage to my father.
-He claimed Prop 8 was important and good because if gays can get married Christians would have to endure hate speech and hate crimes.
-Saddleback Church prohibits gays from becoming members.
There are the obvious beefs:
--the irony of a Christian claiming hate crimes and speech against them by the very people the term was invented for. Boo fucking hoo, tell it to Matthew Shepard. However this presupposes that Warren is correct, that Christians would be attacked by wedded gays: are you out of your ever-loving mind? I would be too busy filing for joint health insurance and sending wedding invitations to Fred Phelp's website to set crosses on fire on Rick Warren's lawn.
--the lack of Christian compassion: aren't you supposed to welcome into the flock those who need you most, and in your estimation, Pastor Warren, wouldn't that be the godless gays?
--I'm not a fan of people who think I should burn in hell for all of eternity for loving my partner, who has the same genitals as me. No people in the history of civilization, nay, the history of bipedal existance have ever had so much gential interest as the gays. My vagina, I guarantee, looks very similar to straight women's vaginas. I should know, I've slept with straight women and the 'ginas look nearly identical, sans some hairstyle differences. I presume gay dudes would say the same. So can we stop talking about what's in my pants already. Christians are the perverts here, not the gays. I have never once discussed or been interested in or written pamphlets about or stated websites on or given public orations concerning Christian sex practices or genetalia.
But this isn't about the bigot Warren, this is about the savior of our people, the optimist, the sage, the one true and noble and mighty and fair and everything else his campaign overtly or covertly, explicitly or implicitly claimed: Obama is fair, sane, morally sound.
I do love Obama, but the pick of Warren is a slap in the face to the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the gay* minority who helped put him into office. I have to agree with Dan Savege here: you don't see an any anti-semites in Obama's cabinet, and there is no out and proud racist performing any function for him either. Why is it that the only people who are expected to "agree to disagree," to shut up and take it, to make nice with those who openly hate them, are the gays?
Consider for a moment, dear reader, someone who outwardly hated an intrinsic aspect of your identity, something immutible and ingrained. Who would that person be? Are they, and others like them, constantly given the benefit of the doubt by our leaders and society in general? Are they heralded for all their other good qualities, and is their hatred of you ignored or downplayed at every turn? What if they were then chosen by the president as someone to perform a sacred and historical ritual in front of the entire country, as an example of morality and good character?
Consistantly the hateful, bigoted, ignorant Christian pastors in America are praised by our political leaders for their intelligence, their kindness, their temperance, their good nature and will despite their open and proud hatred of a prominent minority group. On the same night the first black man was elected president of the United States, Prop 8 passed in California (Warren had a big hand in that, too). While that night will be remembered by many people as the night that equality finally prevailed in America, my memories of it will be very different. Where were all those equality-lovin' straight people who voted Obama in California when Prop 8 won? If you are straight, or god help you gay, and you voted for Obama and also for Prop 8, all I can muster at this moment is fuck you, equality for some is inherently unequal.
I know you're not perfect, Barack, and I'm not asking for it: I'm asking for follow through on that hope you banked on, that change you promised. I'm asking for some of that consistancy you're known for: if you're so smart, your plans and politics so transparent, why make such an ignorant and calculated choice as Warren? Mr. Obama you claim it was to bring people together, but you have only driven me further from you, and many of the other gays that fought so hard for you, believe in you, wrote four figure checks to you, further into the margins. It's the wrong foot to start on, it's a mistake, and for the first time you look like a politican to me. John Leo on the Huffington Post claims that "Prop. 8 and its aftermath are the first time in the four decades since Stonewall that the gay movement has started to look like an organized tantrum" and God willing he's right. Again, to reference Dan Savage, no more Mr. Nice Gay. We have had it, and are no longer interested in pretending bigotry is permissible, inequality is warranted, or that we're cool with you despite the fact that you wish we would just keep our mouths shut and play nice.
*I'm purposely ignoring the rest of the acronym, and just discussing the G and L in LGBT. I am not transgendered and therefore cannot speak to their needs or opinions. Nor am I bisexual, and the bisexuals can at least marry 50% of their dating pool. This issue is too complex to discuss all facets in one wee blog entry, so I have willingly chosen just the parts I am capable of discussing at least semi-coherently.
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