Too little, too late?

Is the gay and lesbian movement reactionary? By that I mean, do we spend most of our energy reacting to our enemies, defending against attacks? Or do we dare to dream of real changes for the better, to believe in our own forward momentum? Can we muster the vision that led other movements in American history--abolitionism, suffragism, the civil rights and antiwar movements--to victory? Look at the issue of same-sex marriage in Hawaii, and the answer is deeply troubling.

As many know, the Hawaii supreme court is on the verge of legalizing same-sex marriage in the Aloha State, possibly this year. But in April Hawaii state legislators passed a constitutional amendment that would permit them to ban same-sex marriage. The amendment must be ratified by voters in the next election. If it is, the legislators will have the power to overrule the court. And if they do--poof!--no same-sex marriage in Hawaii.

Sad, you say? Well, it depends on what happens. The good news is that polls show only a slim majority of Hawaiians in favor of such an amendment. Since it won't go before voters until November 1998, pro-marriage forces have almost 18 months to sway public opinion. That may be considerably easier if the Hawaii supreme court legalizes same-sex marriage this year, gays start getting married, and the sky doesn't fall. And, prodded by the marriage debate, the legislature also passed a terrific domestic-partnership bill, the first statewide bill of its kind--proving, as Evan Wolfson, chief marriage attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, says, that you don't get half a loaf by asking for half a loaf.

But the bad news is this: Most astute observers agree that the proposed antimarriage amendment was easily preventable. Unfortunately, we, as a movement and as a people, did almost nothing to prevent it. Perhaps because we seem more comfortable reacting to attacks than boldly advancing a positive, aggressive agenda, our leaders failed to lead. Our PACs failed to PAC. Our media failed to alert. Our vision failed. And as a result, if worse comes to worst, we may have snatched defeat from the jaws of almost certain victory.

That almost-certain victory was possible only because some people--primarily local Hawaiian activists as well as national-level activists at Lambda--did have vision. They fought for and won carefully planned judicial victories. But they needed help--big help--from gay political and cultural groups like the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. What was needed was a vigorous campaign in Hawaii to bolster pro-gay legislators in the 1996 general election last November, to promise them we would stand behind them in the next election in 1998--provided they stood behind us--and to sway public opinion in favor of marriage. In short, we needed the kind of initiative that right-wing groups were taking on the other side.

But the big national groups didn't see it that way. Before the election last November they ignored pleas from marriage activists and barely raised a finger. As a result, a key pro-gay senator lost his seat, several others came within a hairbreadth of losing theirs, and--worse--they all realized they could not count on the national gay community for support. After the election, gay groups continued to ignore pleas to mount a major political and cultural battle against the now-looming amendment. HRC aired a last-minute TV commercial, true, but it was way too little, way too late. In the end, so far as I can tell, not a single phone call was made to a single wavering senator promising a strong, well-financed campaign to defend his position and support his reelection--even as right-wing groups across the nation, proactive as usual, pledged to work overtime to defeat any senator who stood with the queers.

The result was predictable. With virtually no cultural or political initiative from the national gay community and facing a political and financial onslaught from he Right, the liberal senators caved. Groups like HRC now talk of spending up to $1,000,000 to defeat the amendment. That's wonderful and necessary, and we should all chip in and help. But it's also reactive. Timid. Reactionary. Same-sex marriage was already within our grasp in Hawaii. As we now fight to save what we thought we had already won, we also need to learn from our mistake. We--meaning all of us, not just our national leaders--need to fight for what we want, to be proactive. Just like our enemies.