In this video, you will hear many inspiring words from Barack Obama as concerns his stand on equal rights for GLBTQI people & about the audacity of hoping for better than most of us have right now. I know it takes more than hope to change things in this world, and I know that hope alone can never be enough...but it does have to start with hope. When I hear this man's words & when I see that he has no problem speaking with respect about & to our community, my hope is renewed again. In Barack Obama, I see the crest of the tide of change for which so many of our hearts ache. He helps me believe that not only must we do better as a country & as a people, we can do better. YES, WE CAN.
Below is a video I found on the Queers United website that shows you a little more about the man who dares talk about the "Audacity of Hope" even for people like us...
Below is a video I found on the Queers United website that shows you a little more about the man who dares talk about the "Audacity of Hope" even for people like us...
2 comments:
What I admire most is his courage to speak at the Ebenezer Baptist church and address the black community taking them to task for homophobia and anti-semitism. I think this just shows he doesn't pander to the audience he is in front of but rather stands for justice.
It's funny you said that, QU! I was thinking that most politicians want to be seen "preaching to the choir"; talking to big crowds who already support them & who will cheer their man or woman on & MOST ESPECIALLY make for great TV!
Not that Senator Obama doesn't speak to the already-converted, also, but you are right. The unspoken (and even spoken) homophobia in the African American community is certainly not news. Of course, homophobia exists no matter where you go (I daresay it exists evenin the GLBTQIA community itself). The fact that Senator Obama stood behind the pulpit of an African American church where Dr. King himself probably once stood & spoke words of defense & love about people like us to some folks who probably weren't really open to the message really touched me & told me a lot about the man. He knows that there are people in the African American community (Dr. King's youngest daughter, Bernice, for instance, participated in a march in 2004 to promote the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment) who are loathe to compare our struggle to the struggle of those who have fought so hard for racial equality. They think that the woes we endure because of our "choice" to be queer is a world apart from the problems they live because of the color of their skin.
Senator Obama, like Coretta Scott King before him, understands that the fight is the same, and it took a lot of courage, I think, to speak an unpopular truth to a group of people who provide him less-than-unanimous support on this issue.
As I always say, this man in whom I put so much of my own personal hope is the anti-Bush. He is everything that the current occupant of the White House is not--in almost every way, and back in the beginning of the primary season when I had a tough choice to make between Senators Obama, Clinton & Edwards, I finally came to the conclusion that these past 7+ years were such a nightmare for me, that I wanted the most opposite thing in the world from what we have now...Barack Obama.
I am thankful for the chance to hear Obama's message of inclusion & determination. How beautiful to dare to dream of a time when we can look back at these days & marvel at what we all survived, what we all worked together to repair & what we all achieved with a President who--as the song, America The Beautifulgoes--"more than self, his country loved...".
Thank you for engaging the conversation, QU! I hope you come by more often! :-)
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