I went to the ABQ pride parade today in my "Dare to Hope. Prepare to be disappointed." shirt. It's more or less my mantra when be excited about politicians, and after Barack's upsetting support for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on Friday, it seemed the thing to do. A mild protest, sure, but really an acknowledgement that people, especially people in power, will do things we don't like, and we should be ready for this.
That doesn't excuse it. Readiness for suck doesn't negate the suck. But it should get us past the "oh no! why is this suck happening now!" part of the process, and onto something meaningful. Stay angry about it, sure, but then do something with that anger.
You can give to organizations. PFLAG is always worthy of support, as is the ACLU and Lambda Legal. You can sign petitions. Here's a petition calling for the repeal of DOMA, and here is another. And lastly, if you're in NM, Equality New Mexico is pretty fantastic, and has volunteer opportunities.
There's certainly way more that can be done. There are countless other places to start from. The point, though, is to take that anger, and do something with it. Not "fringe violence" something, mind you. But something. Constructive uses for that anger abound.
The work of being an active and concerned citizen never went away - the political climate right now is not great, but it is not explicitly hostile. Obama feels that the legislature is who needs to change DOMA; pressure legislators. (Contact information for Tom Udall, Jeff Bingaman, Martin Heinrich, Harry Teague, and Ben Ray Lujan.) And this is something that can function on the state level, and takes momentum. So. It is work, but it is doable work. Unfavorable presidents haven't stopped it before; why are we afraid that will hold us back now?
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