Nov 05, 2004  |  By: Chris Crain  | COMMENTS     

future, and it is not in some disingenuous move to the middle, burying gay rights so that we hope no one notices. Or worse yet, repeating the embarrassing effort by congressional Democrats and our own gay rights groups to try desperately to change the subject whenever gay marriage comes up.

The future of our movement — and of the Democratic Party if it has the courage of its convictions — is to actually engage cultural conservatives on these issues and to make our case.

The only difference between civil unions and marriage is the word itself, or so we’ve been told, so let’s focus our efforts on winning over the 35 percent of Americans who support civil unions so that they might join the 26 percent who back full marriage.

And if the weak-kneed Democrats choose the path of least resistance, not trusting in the basic fairness of the American people, then our gay rights groups must finally exercise some leverage within that party or — better yet — circumvent the politicians entirely and go directly to the people.

We will not win our civil rights at the ballot box by electing finger-in-the-wind politicos like John Kerry and John Edwards. We should devote the next four years to “winning the ground war,” convincing the American people of the rightness of our cause.

Then when election time rolls around in 2008, the politicians who say they are our friends must be called to adjust to the new political reality, one in which they have no cause to fear defending our equality, and one in which gay baiting and cynicism will not work so well.