IS BUSH'S WIN ALL OUR FAULT?: Steve Weinstein

...I accuse the gay leadership in this country of putting their own selfish interests above the greater good of the electorate.

There is no reason why we should have been pursuing the issue of gay marriage on the eve of an election year. The key to being a good general is not knowing how to choose the victories, but in judiciously choosing your defeats.

Would it have made such a difference to those couples in Massachusetts if they had waited a year or two before tying the knot? Would it have hurt San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom or New Paltz Mayor Jason West to have put off marrying gay couples until Nov. 3, 2004? ...

It was only 35 years ago that a ragtag group of drag queens, lesbians and gay boys provoked the police at a mafia-run hole-in-the-wall bar called Stonewall on Christopher Street.

These are long-term battles in a very long war that we are only beginning. So what did we do? Something that no one would have thought possible a few short years ago.

We alienated large numbers of black churchgoers. We brought out believers in evangelical sects who had previously shunned the ballot box. We even got the Amish--Amish--to get into their buggies and drive to polling places.

This was no mean feat. Unfortunately, it meant losing every single vote on gay marriage and handing the election to President Bush.

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posted by Eve at 11:22 PM VOTE

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