Amen

My friend Troy has some thoughts on Seantors Obama's "groundbreaking" speech on race and his run for the presidency of the United States...

The Audacity of Hypocrisy

In order to form a more perfect union…
All men are created equal…
Land of the free…

Yesterday I, along with millions of other Americans, watched Senator Obama give the first real speech on race relations and discrimination by a politician in 40 years. It was a moment staged to be revolutionary. It was a moment of supposed self-reflection and reconciliation. It was a moment where we were to look inward and see that racism is in all our lives and that by pretending it doesn’t exist, is to limit our country from healing.

Senator Obama held a mirror up for all of us to look in. White, black, Asian, Native American, red states and blue states. We were to see that if we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem and that if we truly wish to be the Land of the Free then we need to work together and be honest with ourselves. Today I hold up that mirror up for the Senator to look in.

How can you stand and deliver a speech on equality, to talk about the kitchen-table-discrimination that our country perpetuates and yet still not support the rights of millions of Americans who only wish to marry the person they love? Do you not see this as discrimination? Do you not see that you are telling a group of citizens that they cannot have the same rights as you? Do you not see that saying you can have civil unions while everyone else marries is the same as saying you have a seat on the bus, but only in the back of the bus because you are not like us?

In your speech you talked of Rev. Wright as being a man whom you admire but who does not always represent you in what he says. How is it that you can compartmentalize your belief system when it has to do with your Reverend and his impact on your political status, but you cannot compartmentalize your belief system from the church when it comes to delivering equality to the only group in America that is still institutionally discriminated against?

On your website you wrote, "And I should say that personally, I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman." Well let me say this. There were people who believed that interracial marriages should be illegal and like you, they were wrong. Two people who love each other and who are committed to one another should have the same rights, no matter their race, creed or sexual orientation.

You sir, discriminate. You sir, are guilty of the same sins as those who believed that blacks should not have the same rights as whites. You speak of equality and yet you legislate and preach discrimination. I find that hypocrisy unforgivable.

We have three candidates in this election and not one of you has had the courage to stand up and say the discrimination is universally wrong. I hear about racism every day. I hear of sexism every day. I never hear about the one group that is still legally discriminated against. Homosexuals. I understand that it’s a politically sensitive area, but I am looking for a President with the courage to do what’s right.

Let me be clear about this clear Senator Obama. We were fed to the lions with the Christians. We were gassed and shot with the Jews. We have been hung from trees, dragged behind trucks and left to rot in the sun just like African Americans. We were here from the beginning of time and will be here until the end of time.

If you dare to speak of equality, then dare to fight for equality.

I want change too, Senator…

Troy is right. Obviously, some will say, "The speech was about race, no gay rights." Some will say blacks have suffered more, or differently, or that Starbucks burns their coffee. All three of those things don't matter.

We live in an apartheid state. Segregation -- legal segregation by the government -- exists today, in 2008. And our leaders, both progressive and conservative, are content to let it continue so they don't "lose" an election. Problem is we all lose. My former landlord who lost his lover of 30 years and was forced to sell their home because he got no pension benefits loses. The mother who has her kids taken from her for no reason other than she is a lesbian loses. The thousands of children who could be welcomed in to the loving homes with 2 gay parents lose. And Obama hides behind church and 5,000 years of oppression, female ownership, slavery, and hypocrisy -- a tradition which his own denomination, the United Church of Christ has rejected by supporting full marriage equality.