The first paragraph was a little offputting but I'm glad I read on; there was some good stuff in there.

Such a sad and awful time -- prop 8 is still the first thing I think of when I wake up. I feel as though everything people say is true at the same time. We (the queer rights world) have done a not-good-enough job of including black and brown people, rural people, religious people. Our GOTV ground game and fundraising could not meet that of the right/religious groups. We were outmaneuvered by the Mormon hierarchy. For some reason our leadership could not overcome the barriers. And there is a particular problem of homophobia in the black community. And it's connected to, and also separate from, the errors and problems of the queer rights world. We need a Barack Obama of queer rights, or at least a David Axelrod.

I think 70 percent is pretty shocking. No matter the history, background, reasons, errors, problems. In some ways I am glad that the number is out there. It a number so shocking that it (maybe) will demand ... I don't know, response, challenge, discussion, new work.

that was fan-fucking-tastic. possibly the best post-mortem yet on 8.

Thank you for posting that.

Speaking as a straight white guy who considers himself pro-gay, I've always found that (conversationally speaking at least) I've had the most success in the whole gay marraige argument by (ironically) championing apathy: by asking "Dude, why do you even care if two guys want to get married?" For whatever that's worth.

That author managed to articulate a lot of things I've been trying to figure out over the last few days. Thanks for posting the link.

I'm glad I went back for another look (twice actually). When I first clicked through, I misunderstood what was happening with the format, and I thought the very first bit was the post, and everything after comments. Then I thought it was a collection of what a lot of different people on LJ were saying. Finally, I went back once more and actually got down to the numbered list (which is just below the "fold, visually, on my screen), which is the real read, and excellent.

I hope there aren't too many others like me clicking through from various places and doing a too-fast scan, because I just thought it was a rant at first. I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Thanks for that. I've noticed that the queer (and other such social activist) groups here don't really take into account other multicultural perspectives. There's still a huge dollop of Whiteness in everything they do, and if you're not totally like them you're either exotified or shunned.

Slate on this topic, here, here.