DADT filibuster only minor blip on the road to success

I'm a little confused by the Republican filibuster of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in that I don't know who to be miffed at more.

Harry Reid for being so stubborn,

Senator Republicans for being so bullheaded,

President Obama for being so silent,

those who pushed hard for this vote knowing that if it had succeeded, it wouldn't have been a repeal, or

those who are ready to raise hell on this vote in spite of the fact that, if the Republican filibuster had not have succeeded, they would have been the ones quick to remind everyone about how it's not a repeal

Politics is a strange game which makes my head hurt.

So where does this leave the lgbt community? Angry of course and in the position we have been so many times that we can wear out the welcome mat.

But I hope we aren't so angry that we will just sit behind our computer and throw out platitudes of betrayals or wring our hands in abject misery because yet again some with power in society maneuvered us to the back of the bus, so to speak.

Because I refuse to allow this DADT vote to be a negative epitaph on 2010.

We've had a lot of good things happen this year, including:
a man (George Rekers) who made his living off of distorting the lgbt community being exposed as a hypocrite,

an organization of anti-gay liars spending an entire summer making fools of themselves on a bogus "marriage tour,"

our love for each other being affirmed by the courts who at the same time exposed the arguments against marriage equality as the shams that they are,

and having a path set before us by the same courts for a real appeal of DADT, which is the general course of history, i.e. the courts doing what our legislators don't have the guts to do.

So to me, no matter how nauseating it is to swallow, this ridiculous vote by the Senate is only an annoyance, a roadstop when one takes into account what we community accomplished this year.

And that's the important thing to remember. WE accomplished these things. Behind every victory was the work of tireless, faceless activists who will probably never get the credit they deserve. But their work speaks for itself.

Unlike a certain phony, astroturfed, and  heavily funded movement sweeping some parts of the country, the lgbt community is the real deal. We are the real grassroots. Nobody is forking over millions of dollars to us. No one is giving us free television time to repeat phony talking points. No one is giving us any advantage.

Everything we achieve, we achieve it the hard way.

That's probably why the reason why our victories are taking so long to attain. But when they come, and they will, they will be sweet.

So in situations like the Republican filibuster, it's always good to remember that it's not supposed to be easy. No group working for equality ever had anything given to them. Why should the lgbt community be any different?

But resistance to any push for equality doesn't mean that you are losing. It just means that you are winning.

So vent if you must, but don't get discouraged. We aren't losing, no matter what some people try to tell us.