Last week I reported on Kate Kendell’s recent visit to Dallas, during which the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights predicted with 98 percent certainty that Proposition 8 will be upheld by the California Supreme Court. This week, news editor Cynthia Laird of The Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco’s LGBT newspaper) followed up on my story by conducting a more in-depth interview with Kendell. Kendell told Laird that I caught her in “a more pessimistic moment,” but as Laird put it, “she acknowledged what virtually every other legal analyst has said since the justices heard oral arguments last month: the court likely will uphold Prop 8.”
“Clearly, watching the oral arguments I felt my heart sink,” Kendell said.
Kendell may call this pessimism, but I prefer to call it the kind of straight talk that this community could use more of from its leaders. Besides, as columnist George F. Will once wrote, “The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”
You can read Laird’s full interview with Kendell by going here.
While Im not a big fan of anything straight, John is wright (couldn’t help it) that we need more straight talk from out leaders. We do have a handful of leaders who don’t bullshit us and jerk us around, but theyre not usually found amongst more respectable A list gays. Larry Kramer, Robin Tyler and Cleve Jones are a few people that aren’t going to lead us astray for the sake of painting a less than accurate picture.
Just a reminder: At 7:00 pm on the day the California Supreme Court issues its ruling we will rally at the corner of Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn. For more information about this event please visit queerliberaction.org
Under the video tab on the QL website you can find videos of speeches by Larry Kramer and Robin Tyler, both quite insightful.