Excellent moment of clarity in Minnesota's gay marriage debate

The video is great. I saw it live this afternoon and almost cried.

Thanks for the pep talk Alvin McEwen

Cross Post from Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters by Alvin McEwen

As we all know, the Minnesota Senate today approved a 2012 statewide vote to ban gay marriage. The bill will go back to House where it will probably pass and by law, Governor Marc Dayton - who opposes it - can't veto it.

No doubt the National Organization for Marriage will gloat about Minnesota is closer to supposedly "protecting marriage." Meanwhile the lgbt community will get angry and disgusted yet again about having our relationships put under a microscope and anticipating being made the victims lying brochures, flyers, and commercials implying about how we want to recruit children - courtesy of NOM - yet again.



But something interesting happened today during the Senate hearing which bears repeating. The above video is gay Senator Scott Dibble talking about how the amendment will harm him and his husband.



Believe it or not, Dibble's speech also reminds me of one my favorite stories from the Bible.



The Israelites had been the victims of a drought for several years. Finally God told the prophet Elijah that the rain would come. So on the day the rain was supposed to come, Elijah sent his servant to look for a rain cloud. Six times the servant looked and saw nothing.



But the seventh time, he saw only one cloud and it was the size of a man's hand. When Elijah found this out, he knew that the rain would come. And a mighty rain did come, ending the drought.



The point is this - let's not get so caught up on the big things that we fail to see the little things which demonstrate how much the lgbt community is progressing.



I don't recall any moments like Dibble's speech in 2003 when this "we have to stop gay marriage" nonsense officially began. And I certainly don't remember any time during the 80s or 90s that a gay Senator - state or national - had the gumption to stand up in the open and talk about his relationship barring a scandal which forced him out.



But Dibble's speech is indicative of a lot of positive public moments - even in the midst of turmoil - that the lgbt community has been blessed with recently.



These moments are like seeds that are growing. And while they may not grow as fast as we want, they are sprouting. Gone are the days where the majority of lgbts were shamefully in the closet or open and outcasted from their communities.



We are moving forward and will continue to do so. Don't let NOM or any vote attempting to make us second class citizen ever make us forget that.