[Medusa]

I wrote a rant on Facebook a while back that really speaks loudly to how I feel about all of the chatter happening around Obama's "Gay is Ok" statements.

My facebook rant came on the heels of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell thing going away where Gays can now openly serve in the military. My first inclination when that was announced was to rejoice.
My Facebook friends feed so began filling up with other Queers posting about how they "could not celebrate because Gay soldiers were still agents of genocide" and other such statements that felt really discrediting to all of the celebratory posts that they were couched between.

Something very similar happened with this news story.

Here's the thing for me, I am going to celebrate the fact that our President said out loud that he thinks it's ok for us to marry.

I get that there are huge issues surrounding the WHY's and the timing of how he did it. I get that some of us Queers don't want to get Gay Married. I get that there are other people out there who want things and that this feels like a shitty alternative to their idea of a "true Utopian Society" where straight folks are buying the Gay spectrum a Coke and teaching them how to sing.

My irritation around the "but, but, but..." is probably highly privileged.
I'll own that fully before I go any further.

Nonetheless, here is my irritation: When are we as GLBTQ people going to stop "but, but, but-ing" and throwing ourselves on the equality sword every time we get a little something-something?

What I mean by this is, it is a HUGE deal to me that DADT was repealed. Sure, Gay soldiers are still agents of genocide but at least they aren't agents of their own erasure anymore. Can't we fucking celebrate that? Can't we stop stomping down our own joy over Gay marriage just for a split second and take in fully what it means for the POTUS to acknowledge us?

I want my Trans brothers and sisters to be acknowledged as well.
I want racism to end.
I want classism to end.
I want the world to be perfect and accepting and balanced for all of us.

I believe in my heart that the steps to get there are sometimes small and quiet and I am going to celebrate every one of them for just a moment before I start finger-waggling about how it "ain't good enough".

I believe that we sometimes have to look at ANY progress for one of us as SOME progress for all of us.

I realize that some small part of this for me is coming from that place of having been marginalized so long that I'll take any friggin' crumb that I'm thrown but I also come from a place of having been an activist for a long, LONG time. That means that my rage at the end of the day is no less there, just more measured.

In short, I am glad that Obama said what he said. I'll probably be pissed later when it boils down to a political ploy but he is the first sitting President to ever acknowledge us this way. I'll take that with gratitude.

What he said did not come without cost. To him or to us.

He will be fighting an uphill battle with some of his more conservative voters. We are going to be plunged into the spotlight in ways that we never have been before and will probably feel the heat of 1000 conservative tongues telling us to "get back in our closet".

Either way, President Obama made me proud. Even if only for a little bit.