SCHWARZENEGGER TO GAYS: GO TO HELL!

I was never a fan of Gray Davis and I never voted for him. He appeared to me to be the type of garden variety DLC Democrat I view with utter disdain. But he was still a Democrat somewhere deep down under all the pro-corporate bullshit and I was adamantly opposed to the recall maneuver engineered by the reactionary GOP to install one of their own in a progressive state they otherwise would have had no chance to win. Schwarzenegger has a reputation for being a "moderate" on social issues and between his celebrity and not-apparently-threatening views on social issues-- plus a healthy dose of eager corporate donors' contributions-- he swept into the Governor's office. And among his coalition were gay men and women (although I suspect a lot less women than men). Last night Schwartzenegger announced that he will veto legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry.

I'm not African-American but tears well up in my eyes when I contemplate the racial discrimination that denied people their dignity and their shot at the American Dream based on the color of their skin. I consider the successful battle against right-wing reactionaries to bring civil rights to African Americans to have been the most important movement in my lifetime. On a personal level, my interest in gay marriage is exactly zero. (It's a topic for a whole other story but, in short, I have always felt that the need to mimic Society will wring everything unique and interesting out of gay culture and leave it homogenized and even more conformist than it has already become.) However, that's just my personal view. The right for two adult men or two adult women to have equal right to form a marriage bond with the same rights and privileges as heterosexuals seems pretty basic. I was so proud this week that the California legislature passed a bill recognizing this right. Gary Davis would have signed the bill the same day it hit his desk.

Gay men and women who, for whatever reason, voted for-- or donated to-- Arnold Schwarzenegger need to think about this. Here he stood on the brink of being able to the one historically significant thing in his life-- something that would actually raise him above the status of clown and politico-- and for the narrowest of mundane political calculations he turned it down. If anyone harbored any delusion that Schwarzenegger was a leader, it should have dissipated last night. This is a man whose name will forever live in infamy among gay people and among all people of good conscience who believe in equality, social justice and the kind of love Jesus was talking about.