–Mark James, National Steering Committee of World Can’t Wait
November
2, 2005 will mark the beginning of the end of the Bush Regime. Over 50
cities across the country have built organizing committees from the
grass roots level to join the call to drive out the Bush Regime. Many
organizations and thousands of individuals have endorsed this call
without hesitation. Some organizations needed more convincing because
of concerns about communists being involved or fears of doom and
powerlessness. These concerns have been dealt with in a straight
forward and up front way and can be found in the FAQ section on the web
site at www.worldcantwait.org. However,
the most baffling response I’ve been getting has come from some of the
LGBT community groups that have expressed the concern that DRIVING OUT
THE BUSH REGIME isn’t LGBT specific enough for them to take up. I
believe that this concern or assessment is incorrect and must be
reevaluated.
Does the Bush Regime have an agenda and does this
agenda include a future that effects the LGBT community? The simple
answer is YES, however we must look at the particularities of what is
currently going on and the trajectory of this ultra conservative bible
based regime that is gaining more power within the government, straight
to the White House. Back in the late 90’s we all chuckled at the gay
hate rantings of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson. Their
influence seemed limited at the time; no one seemed to take them too
seriously. James Dobson of Focus on the Family wrote a pamphlet
claiming that homosexuality can be prevented through prayer and
reparative therapy. Pat Robertson equated homosexuals to satanists.
Also, Robertson states that from a biblical perspective ‘the rise of
homosexuality is a sign that society is in the last stage of decay.’ He
also stated recently ‘Hurricane Katrina occurred because New Orleans is
the epicenter of sinful jazz music in America’ and ‘As for Ellen
‘Degenerate’ (an accurate nickname my friend Jerry Falwell coined) she
will soon face the wrath of god in her more sinful town of Hollywood,
California. God will create an earth quake with the epicenter just
below her stage.’ Maybe we could laugh at such statements several years
ago, but these people have newfound power straight to George Bush, they
are part of the Bush Regime. The ‘new normalcy’ for the White House is
daily prayer circles and bible quotes, Bush himself claims to be a born
again Christian. These are more than just random statements made by
crazy people. This is part of a growing and powerful movement with an
ideology of hate, greed and bigotry aimed at anyone or any group that
doesn’t conform to their narrow view of morality.
Let’s not
forget that just over a decade ago our community was nearly decimated
by the AIDS epidemic. And now as this disease is rapidly spreading
through the African American and Latino Communities, as well as
countries in Africa and around the world, our president is replacing
government spending on AIDS education and condom distribution with
faith based spending on abstinence only programs. They are promoting a
policy of no sex before marriage and abstinence only for single people.
How do gay people with no rights to marriage fit into this equation? We
don’t because in their view we don’t have the right to be gay. Those
who don’t follow their policy and their morality deserve the
consequences of their actions. This is nothing short of genocide. For
more information on this I suggest people read ‘With God on Their Side’
by Esther Kaplan.
As for gay marriage, Arnold the Governator
just recently over turned a bill from the California legislators that
would recognize gay marriage. He ran on a platform of gay rights
several years ago when Governor Grey Davis was recalled. Many were
hopeful about this new bill only to be disappointed one more time. The
president still plans to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage and
he is currently building a supreme court that will approve it. No one
should be so foolish as to think that John Roberts or Harriet Miers
would vote against such an amendment. Also, don’t think for a second
that this new court won’t be overturning Roe vs. Wade. It’s interesting
that some of the first openly gay people to endorse the call to drive
out the Bush Regime were politicians, including San Francisco
supervisor, Tom Amiano and California Assemblyman Mark Leno along with
NY State Senator Thomas Duane. What do these politicians see coming
down the pike that others have yet to see?
This letter is meant
to urge every progressive gay organization and community group to join
in the call and build a mass movement to DRIVE OUT THIS REGIME. This
letter hasn’t even begun to list all the reasons this movement must be
built. Isn’t a war based on lies, torture of people who are guilty of
nothing other than resisting this government, racial genocide as seen
in the wake of Katrina, replacing science with religion, detention of
people as enemy combatants without reason or due process, and taking
the choice of procreation away from women enough reason to get on
board. After all isn’t it the responsibility of all progressive people
and organizations to defend the rights of everyone without being narrow
and confined to self-interest?
Let’s look at the history of the
German Nazi movement as an example of just how far a regime can go. In
the early 1930s the German people enjoyed a variety of freedoms; the
gay movement was flourishing. By 1934 Hitler had 1000 supporters of
Ernst Roehm, a known homosexual, put to death. By 1935 Paragraph 175
was rewritten to allow the roundups and imprisonment of homosexuals. It
was estimated that by the fall of the Nazi Regime up to 15,000
homosexuals were exterminated. This figure was nothing compared to the
total number of people exterminated. Is it possible for something like
that to happen again? I for one don’t want to just stand by and find
out. The world truly can’t wait as we sit back to see what comes next.
Imagine
for a moment, the LGBT community uniting with people from other
communities and waging a battle against what is coming into being from
these theocrats. This is exactly what is required; we must create a
united front of resistance in our millions. We all want this trajectory
to stop and we all must mobilize to stop it. This planet and the life
on it depend on our actions. Can the future afford to wait as we go
shopping or redecorate our houses or plan the next social event? Sorry
folks, but this next period is going to require dedication and resolve
to change the way we are being governed. Imagine a better world and
what it will take to make that happen.