Is there a "Blitzkrieg" coming against GLBT equality?

This week, the advocacy group People For the American Way (PFAW) alerted its members via email to a widely reported conference call that the Religious Right had orchestrated at hundreds of locations across California, Arizona, and Florida, all states where this November's election ballot will include a referendum on discriminatory "marriage amendments".

Kathryn Kolbert, President of PFAW was alarmed at the discussion that occurred on that call, and for good reason. Apparently, the Right is organized, organizing, and has a plan. Is it the Armageddon? That's what some call participants said.

To be precise, Chuck Colson, one of the anti-gay industries premier rabble-rousers with operations of his Prison Fellowship Ministries based in Loudoun County, Virginia, as reported on extensively by our friends at Equality Loudoun, called the upcoming elections "the Armageddon of the Culture War". Curious, but doesn't calling it the "Armageddon" imply that they've already lost? Another call participant referred to a planned rally at a San Diego stadium as a "Blitzkrieg moment". That's another loaded term that translates literally as "Lightning War" and usually infers a rapid and overwhelming military strike.

So, let's get clear on this. The Right believes that The End is near, that they're going to lose (and when they do it's a sure sign of The Armageddon!), and that the only way they might "win" the battle is to use overwhelming violence? Sorry, but aren't they sounding just a little bit desperate?

With all due respect to Ms. Kolbert and PFAW, an organization that deserves a great level of respect for some excellent and persistent work on behalf of individual rights and religious freedom in this country (including a healthy amount of work for GLBT equality), I think the tone of the email was a bit too alarmed. That's not to say--not at all--that there is not a fight on our hands, or that there is not a strong effort being waged against fairness in California this November--there certainly is. Read the PFAW alert and the "8 for 8" campaign sounds pretty darn impressive, and it points to the importance of how much our side needs to organize, donate, contact, and lobby for votes against Proposition 8.

But you see, as a veteran of political activism, I am a bit suspicious of the Right's newfound vigor and their peculiar sense of the "fierce urgency of now". I use that term a bit tongue-in-cheek as one call participant had the gall to insinuate that Rev. Martin Luther King would have supported the discriminatory amendment, something I think the late Mrs. King clearly disagreed with, and without a doubt a highly dubious and misleading claim. You see, the Right has been acting this way for at least 25 years. They have been about as spastic in the last several years as you can without losing your credibility in regard to the steady advance of GLBT equality and the movement. And they've still managed, by and large, to lose their credibility.

Why is our movement successful and the anti-gay movement lacking credibility? Because at our movement's core is the value of honesty, and people everywhere respect that. The anti-gay groups, on the other hand, are typically misrepresenting us and our intentions, completely.

Groups like the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, Media Matters, and locally even our friends at Equality Loudoun have extensively documented their misleading claims, their over-the-top rhetoric, and misrepresentation of the GLBT community. In fact, recently David Weintraub at Equality Loudoun highlighted, in a post about the remarkable community reaction in Loudoun to a bigoted letter to the editor in a local paper from a ten-year-old boy, that our anti-gay friends most often fail because they are not addressing themselves but in essence denigrating others: 

One of the glaring problems that anti-gay activists have in general is this: In advocating for our own equality, GLBT people and our allies only need to talk about ourselves. In advocating against our equality, anti-gay activists need to talk about us.This is not exactly a good strategic position for them.

The Right, on the other hand, has been anything but honest about this movement, what we stand for, the tactics we've used, and most importantly, about our collective intent. The claim that GLBT people, by seeking inclusion in the civil right of marriage, are actually seeking to "undermine the institution", or "redefine" it, or even "destroy" it, are patently and obviously dishonest. It is evident to any fair-minded person, and most likely even to a large number of unfairly-minded people, that GLBT people seeking marriage equality want nothing of the sort (to undermine, destroy, or redefine marriage).

Nope, they simply want to participate in it. So, I for one am heartily encouraged by the notion of the California law granting gay and lesbian couples the same right to marry being put to a vote. There is always a risk, a chance, that people will do the wrong thing. Call me crazy, but I think Californians are ready to do the right thing. In fact, a recent Field Poll indicates that 51% of voters plan to vote no, whereas only 43% of voters are planning to vote yes. Of course, the Right cites an LA Times poll earlier in the Spring which indicated almost the exact opposite. But the Field Poll is well-reputed and the result has been repeated multiple times, whereas the Times poll was a one-time snapshot.

Regardless of the polls, it's clearly a close contest. Clearly, Equality Fairfax members and our fair-minded friends should get involved and donate--do whatever you can to support victory in California. Even though similar advances in Virginia remain many years away, sustaining our progress in California and Massachusetts, as well as bringing marriage equality to other states that seem poised for change, like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and possibly even Maryland or Washington DC, will mean that GLBT Virginians will see it happen in our lifetimes.