It takes the majority...

So history is not my academic emphasis, I am a number geek. I'm not an expert, and I often find myself asking B historical questions that I'm sure are comically obvious to her. Having said that, the one thing that I am good at is questioning history and the way that the standard textbook stories are told to us. What I remember studying about the civil rights movement was about Rosa Parks, and MLK, and the amazing strength and courage that it took to stand up to the hegemony of the day and say "this is wrong." What I wonder is, would that alone have been enough if leaders in the majority had not fought alongside for the righteous cause? This is not to diminish the importance of the roles that minority leaders played. It was the spirit and strength that fueled the fight. I know this is a difficult argument to make, and I know that a similar comment by Hillary Clinton was heavily criticized and categorized as an attack on MLK himself. I am just wondering.

I am wondering because I see the parallel now in the fight for the right to marry. Do you really think that gay people alone championing this cause will ever be enough? This is not to diminish the important work of the HRC, and the NCLR and the fearless gay leaders who have given their voices and stories to the cause. What I am trying to say that it is my opinion that the momentum will only shift when straight people start to fight for this cause with the same passion that I do. When Arnold Schwarzenegger changes from saying, "it is the will of the people" to "it is time to change this" and signs the legislation that enacts marriage equality, when Diane Feinstein changes from simply speaking out against proposition 8 to bringing a bill to repeal DOMA, when President-Elect Obama springs from acknowledging gay people in his election night speech to fighting for the equality of all Americans actively by using the executive order to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and nominating supreme court justices who will recognize that DOMA is a clear violation of full faith and credit, even under the most conservative interpretation...this is when gay rights will become the reality.

Minorities can not bring the change alone. It takes the majority to join the fight. And so I ask you, what have you done? What are you willing to do? Have you spoken to your friends about the issue? Have you written to your representatives? Some day, our son will be able to travel to any state and know that is moms are protected there the same way we are at home. This is when I will know that we have overcome.