Saving the World One Party at a Time
By Josh Aterovis

One of our closest friends recently said to me, "You know, I always read your column, and I enjoy it, but it's been pretty heavy lately. I miss your fluffy pieces." I thought about it and realized that my columns have tended a bit toward the doom-and-gloom variety of late. I've found it hard to focus on the bright side when every week things seem to get just a little worse for the LGBT movement.

The truth is, however, I firmly believe that what is going on in the U.S. -- and all around the world for that matter -- is just the swing of the cultural pendulum. It's a cycle we've seen before. When things seem to be progressing just a little too far for the social conservatives to handle, they fight back. In the end, though, what is right and fair always wins out. The pendulum will swing back. Once it does, it'll never swing this far again.

Why do I believe this with such conviction? Because I see it playing out all around me. Even with all the hate-mongering going on right now -- even with all the bigotry being spewed from pulpits under the guise of religious teaching, even with all the anti-gay rhetoric masquerading as political platforms, even with the President of the United States openly working to ensure that gays and lesbians remain second-class citizens -- we're making progress.

Just a generation ago, it would have been unthinkable for gays and lesbians to live openly the way so many of us do today. Fifty years ago, the police routinely raided gay bars and arrested gay men, lesbians, and drag queens for no other crime other than being in a gay bar. Lives were destroyed simply by having the arrest report printed in the paper. Today, 31 states have hate crime laws that include sexual orientation, while ten also include gender identity. Those same newspapers that once outed innocent men and women now run announcements for same-sex unions. Just twenty years ago, not a single state had laws protecting its LGBT citizens from discrimination. Today, sixteen states have some form of anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation. Just five years ago, it was unthinkable that gays and lesbians could get married in the U.S., and now Massachusetts has same-sex marriage, Connecticut and Vermont have civil unions, and California, DC, Hawaii, Maine, and New Jersey have domestic partner laws. We still have a ways to go before we reach full equality, but we have undeniably made progress.

Everything I just described above is law, and as we all know, laws can be repealed. In fact, the Far Right is working hard to fight many of those same laws I just wrote about. But here's the thing. They can fight it as hard as they want, but they're fighting a losing battle. Attitudes are changing, and that's something no amount of hate-filled propaganda can reverse.
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