ON
WEDNESDAY,
NOV.
3,
I
did
something
I
had
never
done
after
a
presidential
election:
I
turned
off
the
television.
I
stopped
watching
the
news,
I
stopped
listening
to
the
radio,
I
stopped
reading
the
papers,
and
I
stopped
logging
onto
Internet
news
sites.
For
a
full
week,
I
let
go
of
politics
and
started
thinking
about
other
things.
Not
surprisingly,
I
was
remarkably
happy
while
everyone
around
me
seemed
depressed.
I
heard
friends
talk
about
moving
to
Canada.
I
got
e-mails
from
people
suggesting
that
the
blue
states
secede
from
the
union.
A
lot
of
people
talked
about
creating
two
separate
countries.
My
favorite
suggestion
was
unlikely,
but
it
seemed
effective.
If
all
the
progressive
voters
in
the
south
simply
moved
to
Florida
and
Georgia,
we
could
completely
take
over
those
two
states.
Who
needs
Kentucky
and
South
Carolina
anyway?
THOSE
IDEAS
WERE
fascinating,
but
they
are
not
the
solution.
I’ve
worked
on
six
political
campaigns,
and
I
know
you
don’t
give
up
when
you
lose
one
battle.
I
lost
races
in
‘82,
‘84,
‘86,
‘88
and
‘89
and
finally
found
a
winner
in
1992
with
Bill
Clinton.
I
didn’t
need
a
television
pundit
to
tell
me
to
keep
fighting
after
losing
an
election.
I
would
have
continued
my
self-imposed
media
blackout
indefinitely,
but
I
had
to
give
a
speech
about
the
election
at
the
National
Gay
&
Lesbian
Task
Force’s
Creating
Change
conference
in
St.
Louis
recently.
I
also
had
to
moderate
an
election
panel
at
UCLA
Law
School
and
I
was
scheduled
to
attend
the
opening
of
the
Clinton
presidential
library
in
Little
Rock
in
the
same
week.
I
canceled
my
trip
to
Arkansas
because
I
did
not
want
to
sit
around
a
bunch
of
despondent
Democrats,
and
I
was
a
little
wary
of
speaking
at
the
Creating
Change
conference
as
well.
What
I
found
in
St.
Louis
was
refreshingly
different.
LGBT
activists
were
not
depressed;
they
were
fired
up
and
ready
to
continue
the
struggle.
They
knew
that
the
election
was
simply
a
battle
in
the
larger
war
for
the
soul
of
America.
They
knew
that
this
was
not
the
time
to
surrender.
They
knew
they
had
to
go
back
home
and
fight.
MAYBE
THIS
WAS
a
wake-up
call.
John
Kerry
was
the
most
LGBT-friendly
Democratic
presidential
nominee
in
history,
but
he
was
not
our
savior.
We
made
the
mistake
of
assuming
Bill
Clinton
would
be
our
savior
in
1992
and
we
quickly
learned
otherwise.
The
truth
is
that
our
response
to
the
election
should
be
the
same
regardless
of
who
wins
the
presidency.
In
1992,
we
sat
back
and
expected
the
president
to
do
the
heavy
lifting.
Today
we
know
we
have
to
do
the
work
ourselves.
We
have
to
develop
a
proactive
left-wing
agenda
of
our
own,
not
just
a
reactive
agenda
that
responds
to
right-wing
attacks.
We
need
to
articulate
our
own
positive
vision
of
America
that
goes
beyond
identity
politics
and
puts
the
other
side
on
the
defensive.
We
cannot
afford
an
“either-or”
strategy
that
forces
us
to
choose
between
national
politics
or
local
politics.
We
have
to
be
engaged
in
both
areas.
We
have
to
fight
with
every
weapon
in
our
arsenal
—
from
the
streets,
to
the
school
board,
to
the
boardroom,
to
the
courtroom,
to
the
court
of
public
opinion.
And
we
can’t
give
up
just
because
we
lose
an
election.
Our
day
will
come,
when
we
make
it
come.
And
soon,
our
opponents
will
be
the
ones
turning
off
the
television.
