The New York Times reported today that McCain did not mention the ruling yesterday.  He doesn't want to be dragged into that debate right now but we can be assured that McCain will mention it when he feels he needs to whip up the base.  Or, he will have his spiritual adviser, John Hagee, mention it.  Over and over and over.  And debate monitors, bereft of ideas and creativity, will mention it.  Obama noted the ruling favorably and moved on.  Good for him.

As we move into summer and the annual Gay Pride Parades all over the country it may be time for gay and lesbian organizations to rethink these parades.  If Gay Pride Parades are meant to celebrate being gay and lesbian they are held in an environment that does not share in the celebration.  If the parades are intended to affirm identity as gay or lesbian then they perpetuate outsider status at a time we want to be viewed as no different than the majority.  If the aim of these parades is to cement our common bond as gay men and lesbians then they fail.  The commonality we share is discrimination.

In between annual Gay Pride Parades the hard work of advancing equality for gay men and lesbians is done by a handful of organizations working on a shoestring (I exclude HRC from that list).  If the 400,000 or so gay men and lesbians and their supporters who march in NYC in June would each give $5.00 to Lambda Legal Defense or their state equality organization or a local group that is working with gay and lesbian teens they would have a lot more to celebrate in the coming years.  If each one of those marchers broke the silence and came out to their family, friends and co-workers and got it over with that would be something to celebrate.   And if the organizers of these parades across the country brought millions of people together on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to march for civil rights that would be something to celebrate.  Some say we can have  "pride" parades and Dykes On Bikes and marching gay firefighters and cops, and mommies pushing baby carriages and PFLAG, and  we can have Lambda Legal Defense and similar organizations.  Sure we can.  But preserving "gay identity"  at parades at the same time we want to increase our ability to be treated as fairly as heterosexuals continues the image that we are separate and apart.  Gay Pride Parades perpetuate stereotypes and change nothing.  

Most gay men and lesbians must consider their sexual orientation and their place in heterosexual society when they go for a job interview, sign up for a mortgage, meet someone new, consider health insurance as a couple, want to adopt, move into an all heterosexual neighborhood, and so on.  Then "gay identity" is very much in evidence only because of the discrimination we encounter.   There is no "gay agenda," there is no "gay lifestyle."  Every resource we can muster should be going into ending discrimination.  The resources that go into launching Gay Pride Parades -- and it is significant in some cities -- should be diverted to more meaningful goals.

Discrimination against Californians who wish to marry ended there yesterday.  The backlash has begun.  The resources that will go into Gay Pride Parades in California should be diverted to preserving this historic decision.  I think that the transvestites who took on the cops at the Stonewall and spawned annual Gay Pride Parades ever since would agree.