Nevada was the last state to decriminalize sodomy before it was mandated by Lawrence. The entire gay community of Nevada is beholding to Republican state senator Rick James who lead the coalition. A fiscal conservative and a social progressive. A RINO is a RINO. And I love ‘em.

While it may be fun to bask in the manifest rightness of our cause for a while, at some point it would be useful to actually persuade other people that we’re right. The fact that we are so manifestly right ought to make this easy. The fact that most gay lobbying groups spent only pennies opposing 2004′s slew of anti-gay state ballot initiatives is strongly related to the fact that they all passed. And the head of one of the groups that should have been fighting this battle sneering at the idea of fighting it is deeply disturbing.

You wrote: “Now I realize it’s not always pragmatic or a good political move…”

That’s really the whole point. Telling the voters to go screw themselves has never gotten anyone elected or any measure passed.

“Why would you want to trust the existence of your civil rights as a human being to [the American people]?”

At the end of the day, of course, our rights are only fundamentally secured by our own willingness to fight for them.

The entire practical advantage of Democracy over other systems is that we can have that battle without the human tragedies and economic disruptions of fighting a civil war. And the rules of the battlefield are really quite simple — convince other people that you’re right.

We don’t have a direct democracy (thank God and the Founding Fathers!) — but really all of the indirect systems (like the filibuster, the incumbency advantage in Congressional races, and even the Supreme Court) really just work on a slower time constant. Thus, we get agreement from all the relevant bodies when the consensus of the American people has been constant over a decade or two. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the slower forms of representation don’t still fundamentally reflect public opinion. They just have the rapid fluctuations and political fads smoothed out.

If most Americans were convinced that speaking the word “Zazbot” should be punishable by death, and this belief was maintained for twenty or thirty years, we’d have a Supreme Court that would produce convoluted opinions explaining why such a law was not in violation of the First Amendment. You’d be right that they were wrong, but this wouldn’t help keep you from your execution.

Good point. I’m a bit more hopeful now — we’ll see when he actually does try to do something like that, how it goes over in the media. But you’re absolutely right that countering right-wing anti-gay media figures is indeed part of GLAAD’s mission.

“Well, fundamentally human rights should never be put up for a popular vote.”

There’s nothing wrong with what he said, and if thats an example of “attacking the will of the American People”, I don’t think its a good one. For one thing, I think most Americans would agree with the statement. But if you want a real example, I’ll give you one.

I happen to be in the “Creator granted humans unalienable rights” camp of democracy. Governments and societies can choose whether to acknowledge those rights, but they exist regardless of popular vote. We have them because they are the manifestation of grace of Gods in human beings. You can’t vote this out of existence any more than you can vote your right hand out of existence.

So as far as having “aggression against the will of the people”; that is just fine with me. They can go screw themselves as far as I’m concerned. Now I realize it’s not always pragmatic or a good political move to make much of that, and also if you want to be treated with dignity you need to treat others that way too.

But if you lose sight of these basic facts all-together, you forget something very important. And that is when gay and lesbian Americans go to their countrymen and ask for the respect due to us, that we are on the right side of the argument. The quest for the recognition of our human dignity is a morally just and virtuous cause.

If you don’t believe in this, or in your own human dignity, then why make any case for equal treatment in the first place? Go crawl under a rock and accept 2nd class citizenship. Give up your seat at the table and go sit on the floor.

The “will” of the majority of Americans at one time also believed slavery and not permitting women to vote were good ideas.

But what is even worse is that the “will” of the American people also made TV shows like “Survivor” or “Idol” or even “Gilligan’s Island” top all-time hits.

Why would you want to trust the existence of your civil rights as a human being to people who did something so heinous and plainly stupid?