Being gay in Canada is pretty sweet. I’ve rarely come across much in the way of direct conflict due to my prediliction for the man-on-man. At worst it’s been a conversation killer, mostly causing the extinction of unwanted small talk at work, so hey, hidden bonuses all around. It’s not so fun to be a queer in the States this week, though. As many of you know, Barack Obama’s inauguration is this week, and at a time that should be celebratory for my LGBT kindred south of the border much of the wind is being taken out of their sails.

I’m talking, of course, about Obama’s complete cock-up in terms of the religious pomp that so unfortunately surrounds the Presidential inauguration. First, Obama picks Rick Warren to give the invocation. Rick Warren runs the notoriously homophobic Saddleback Church, and when he was chosen there was much in the way of outcry from the gays in the U.S. Obama’s camp decided to do some damage control and invited gay Episcopelian bishop Gene Robinson to do the pre-inauguration invocation. Then promptly shut off his mic and didn’t include him in the television broadcast. Hmph.

There’s a lot of back-and-forth blame going on right now, between HBO and Obama’s camp, but from what I’ve read around the web, it seems to be the President-elect’s fault that the gays were shut down yet again on the public stage in the States.

This is just fucking confusing to me. Obama keeps regressing further and further away from thinking of the LGBT community as equal. Rick Warren’s speech will likely be spread wide across the Tubes, and I have a feeling that he’ll make some questionable comments about (if not completely and outright condemn) gay marriage. This will be the religious message that people will associate with Obama’s years in office. He should fucking know better, and yet he, like pretty much every other politician, will bow to the will of the religious majority. The regression frightens me. Because I see it happen more and more every day, in the way people speak, on TV, in movies, in politics, and this backswing we’re in could lead to something bad for people like me. Gay is still the punchline, and I cringe when I see people on TV use the same old bullshit to choke a laugh out of middle America. Gay is still a perjorative word, and I’ve even caught my best friend using it recently. It chills me.

I’m making a vow right now that I’m going to get my fucking writing out there, and that shit will be nowhere in it. None of my gay characters are going to die just because. My gay characters, which I know will be naturally included in my works, will not be targets nor will they be cloyingly perfect Uber-queers that couldn’t possibly exist in real life. Just people. Possibly people with super-powers, depending on what I’m writing (GOD guys I’m not made of STONE).

I will listen to Rick Warren’s speech, and Obama’s. I’ll be listening very intently. The gay community of the U.S.A. will be listening, too. They have been. They’ve heard Obama promise to repeal the army’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and heard many other promises as well. I hope that they take Obama to task if he fails to deliver on those promises, and I’ll be cheering them on all the way. The minorities in countries have to speak loudest because the have the most to gain and the most to lose, and our governments should WANT to help these people, to protect their rights. That’s why governments exist.

Well, if all of North America gets really bad, I hear Spain is super nice.