an extremely small footnote

[rm]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/waiting-for-obama-in-grant-park/

Regardless of the aptness of the analogy (which is certainly debatable), it never occurred to me until I read Mr. Krieglstein's comments that anyone anywhere thought we could ever possibly have gay president.

Comments

[fleur.livejournal.com]

I think we can. Call me an optimist. However the Libra balance of that says that I really don't know when it will be.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

It's totally coming!
Greater Geek Power is on the rise, and will have dramatic effects in our lifetimes. Sexual life of candidates in the developed world is going to be as irrelevant as religious affiliation is right now in Canada.
President Takei, Prime Minister Rowling is online now. Did you want to conference call with Prime Minister[Canadian scientist you have totally never heard of]?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Sooner than we think.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I really liked this quote:

Whether Mr. Obama wins – and becomes the first African American president – or Senator John McCain wins, Ms. Strom said, the conversation will forever be different. “Something has changed by going through this whether you are black or not.”

She is right. No matter what, times are changing. I look at the kids like my daughter--SO damn proud to have voted, voted for Obama and thus feels a part of this important day despite being in a very red state--and have to feel hope. REAL hope.

I would love to see in my lifetime (I am in my 40's) an election where race, sex, sexual orientation doesn't matter... Maybe? But surely in my daughter's. This can't be reversed, though I feel a measure of fear of those who will try.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes we will :). And I think you and I and all the commenters here will live to see him or her take office.

I read an article the other day about a 110 year old black voter (whose grandfather or father, I forget which, was a former slave) never thought she'd see a black presidential candidate, let alone a viable one. So I'm pretty sure this will change too.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what I said to my 88 year old grandma and 65 year old mother a few days ago. Whether Obama wins or loses, he's forever changed American politics for the better, and that alone is impressive and good enough.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

If Proposition 8 fails, then the most populous state & the home of the majority of the movie & tv industry has queer marriage. WIthin 5 years, I'd expect an increasing number of movies and tv shows with married queer characters. 10-20 years after that, I think we could see a (married) queer president or vp.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

I do believe we'll see a gay man in office before we see a woman of any sexual orientation or race. Because a gay man is still a man and the Presidency will, in our lifetimes, belong only to men.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

109. It was her father who was born into slavery. She voted.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Agree with the first; disagree with the 2nd.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I guess that's why I couldn't find the article to double check. I had the wrong age!

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Really hard to say. I mean, we've likely already had a queer president so clearly the question is over an openly gay president. I can't hide being a woman, I can hide being queer.

But if you look at history, the sequence is black men, women (generally white then black), then some combination of disabled, gay, minorities, etc, following that. So I think it's likely we'll have a woman for a president before we have an openly gay person in that office.

In fact, I think the very last one "in line" will be an atheist :-P.

[gement.livejournal.com]

I agree with your line-up, and I'm not surprised by the idea of an openly queer president, though such a president will have to be the gay Hillary Clinton, being careful to meet the most conservative standards of normalcy to avoid being thrown out as too weird. Though we have had presidents with significant movement disabilities, they were before the days of television, and that will be another rough psychological battle.

The Republicans have fielded a female VP candidate. It wasn't seen as particularly brave. It was dismissed as cynical pandering to the Hillary Clinton constituency. That's right, they picked up a woman to woo a demographic.

Equal rights for women has slipped into that hazy "oh, is there still a problem with that?" zone, where yes, there obviously is still a problem, but it's below the level where people can talk about it as directly without sounding crazy.

Prop 8 demonstrations are pretty clear evidence that the gay equality issue is still somewhere around "Votes for Women" with all the collapse of society arguments included. But the news cycles are getting shorter, and the changes are getting faster.

I'm pretty confident that we'll get there.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Well I hope she lives long enough to vote for him twice.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

In 2004 I had nightmares of The Handmaid's Tale come to life. I don't know that I fear that from McCain, necessarily, but if he wins and then he dies...oh yeah, I'm scared.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think we'll have women, gay men, and just about anybody before atheists. We've got to get all the way through the "not Christian" and "not particularly observant" territories first.

[natf.livejournal.com]

"Page not found"

I guess I was too slow...