Bi The Way

The election of Barack Obama as the 44th US President sent a clear signal to the world that America’s racially divided past is now history. The sense of hope is palpable. We can feel it on the opposite side of the Atlantic, America is energised, optimistic and hungry for change. The around the world people breath a sigh of relief, knowing that the hawkish tenure of George W. Bush and his Neo-Con allies is now at an end.

“If an African American can become President of the United States then clearly anything is possible,” they say. “America can change,” they say. The chants of “Yes we can!” echo in the streets. But if you are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender, you could be forgiven for thinking that some things will never change.

Whilst America voted for hope, California, Florida and Arizona voted for intolerance, with each state passing amendments to explicitly ban gay marriage. This is the 21st Century, yet heterophile bigotry is still dominant in US politics.

40 years ago, would we have thought that a black man could become President of the United States? Perhaps not… yet equally today, do we dare to dream that gay, lesbian, bisexual or even a transgender person might attain the highest office and become the leader of the most powerful nation on earth?

An openly bisexual president? A queer commander in chief? A lesbian in the oval office? Surely its unthinkable?

I’ll admit its difficult to conceive America voting for an LGBT President. A straight black man has one clear advantage. He can be a “good Christian”. He’s not a sodomite, the bible doesn’t frown on his very existence, quite the opposite. The apostle Paul took Christianity to the masses and (against the will of his peers) extended it to become more than a Jewish schism and it was allowed to become a multi-racial faith.

Yet still, anyone engaging in a homosexual act, the bible condemns as a sinner and advocates their execution (Leviticus 20:13). The source of this bigotry is the so called “Christian-Right”, they are the ones standing in the way of Gay Rights in the U.S. non-one else.

But equally, whilst LGBT people in America still face discrimination and bigotry, we are not starting from the same position that the Black civil rights leaders of the 1960′s. Men in white cloaks don’t bomb our houses or burn crosses on our lawns. We have a safe, largely intimidation free platform from which to campaign. Though whilst its easier to campaign without death threats and letter bombs arriving at your house each day, its difficult to mobilise a public sense of outrage from political centrists and independent voters, when they can’t see the harm been done to you and those you love by the religious right.

This was clearly the case in California, where a few short weeks ago Proposition 8 (the ban on Gay Marriage) looked set to fail. But at the ballot box enough uninformed independent voters plumbed for it, unconscious of the prejudice it entails and destruction it does to committed LGBT couples.

The LGBT community will clearly fight on, Obama’s “Yes we can!” Message is still ringing in our ears, but America needs to have a dialogue with itself and recognise that with the election of Barrack Obama its gotten over one prejudice, but it still has others to overcome.

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