It's June, Gay Pride month, and in honor of gay pride month, infoMania's Bryan Safi gives politicians a crisis plan in case they find themselves in a "sticky" situation (think about it...).
While hilarious, Safi evokes an important facet of America's roadblock on the way to progress: hubris.
I'm currently reading "Living in the End Times" by Slavoj Žižek (had to break out the character map for that one); the book is his treatise against Capitalism, detailing the downfall of the liberal government (read: totalitarian, detached, self-serving, not as in Democrats), and arguing that such a downfall allows us to find a new beginning through the failure. To open the discussion, he argues that admitting to one's own identity in all it's glory and tragedy is the first step to finding this new beginning.
Legislators facing such a "gay crisis" as Safi describes need take note of this. It would appear that they've gone so far down the path of hatred and discrimination that they deny what they are. It can largely be argued that they hate because they are unable to come to terms with who they are.
This hubris, this denial of what is right for the advancement of what you've constructed, affects more than just gay/bisexual/transgender legislators and legislation: this same kind of hubris has stalled health care legislation, climate change legislation, gay rights legislation, immigration reform, foreign policy, and the dreams of ordinary citizens in the process. The truth is, if legislators are to represent our wishes, they cannot do so if they are so cornered by fear as to prevent them from taking action at all.
Let this be a lesson to all of us. Be who you are and admit it to yourself, or start shipping Dawn to the Gulf.
UPDATE:
This story gives an example of the same activity in the church. It's nothing new, but it is still very important to acknowledge the toll this backwards discrimination takes, not only on the subjects of such prejudice, but on those who tout it.