DADT repeal goes down for now but the gay community isn't beaten yet

For a group whose mantra has been that President Obama and the Democrats aren't listening to the American people, it would seem that the Republican party was committing a bit of transference.

I'm sure that the American people don't like the idea of unemployment benefits being held hostage, nor do they like the idea of tax cuts for those who don't need them.

But we definitely know that the American people favored the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy dealing with gays serving in the military.

However, the Republican Party won't even allow it to come to a vote, exercising their right to be complete hypocritical assholes.

So what's the lgbt community to do now?

Well one thing to not do is play a self-defeating game of blame. No doubt some will say that President Obama and the Democrats should have pushed for this law when they had a larger number of votes in the Senate.

I disagree. If the 2008 Proposition 8 vote in California should have taught the lgbt community anything, it's that anytime anything which benefits us comes up for a vote, it will always be a knockdown, drag out battle.

By just simply existing without shame, lgbts constantly threaten the status quo. And the status quo doesn't like that.

So right now while some of us are tending to our war-torn hair, washing our dirty faces, and trying to bind our psychological wounds which come from being slapped down yet again by the powers-that-be, let's not succumb to the temptation of enveloping ourselves in the morass of self-pity and finger pointing.

No battle is over as of yet. And this one has just started.

For one, there is the new plan by Senators Lieberman and Collins to bring up DADT on a stand alone vote.

And while that may lead to something, I prefer the petition by HRC which reads as follows:

Mr. President: Halt the discharges by the end of 2010

The Senate has failed our military and failed the American people. It's clearer than ever that we need President Obama to take action to end this law that hurts our families, our soldiers, and our national security.

Send your letter asking President Obama to honor his commitment to ending this law by giving up his Administration's defense of this unconstitutional, discriminatory law and by enacting a stop-loss order to prevent any more discharges.

Send your message now.

The link is here. Now I know some of you probably want to vent (again) at the "inaction" of President Obama and the folks at "Gay,Inc" but don't do it.

Seems to me that the most important thing is for us to get this issue done now. One doesn't stop in the heat of battle to start berating. If that first option don't work and Obama doesn't listen to the second option as of yet, then we spend 2011 agitating until he does listen.

We not only have the people on our side, but apparently the Pentagon too

The struggle for equality involves more than just putting the word "equality" in your name and spouting profanity online.

The struggle for equality involves action, patience, and an old fashioned "never say die" spirit.  African-American activist Fredrick Douglass put it best:

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”