Lorin11 is right that mid-level bloggers can affect the wider discourse; and also that you should keep fighting for what you believe in if you want to be an agent of change.

Good luck. You do inspire others with your well-written words, and that is no small thing.

My question is why should gays who disagree with much on the “progressive agenda” vote for Democrats? Seems like limited government gays (and there’s a large number of gays who are not enamored with big government) have no reason to vote or contribute to Democrats.

Gay organizations should most certainly support inclusive republicans, and publicly denounce anti-gay democrats.

And don’t forget that one of the consequences of being a “mid-level” blogger is that you are on the radar of several of the larger bloggers. Your voice is being heard. And I would give you a slightly different framework to consider using in “speaking” to them. “If you want to be a winner, act like a winner.” Winners don’t care what other people think about them, they simply take what they believe, and lead others to follow them. (I phrased that last sentence in a way that makes clear that the current cabal in power are not winners, just manipulators and users.) If we want to win, we can’t be cowards; people are turned off by cowards.

Frederick Douglass said it best, in his last public appearance in 1895, at a women’s rights convention: “Agitate, agitate, agitate!”. The marginalization of the LGBT community is a civil rights issue, and when it has been successfully framed as such, as in the Hester case, there is progress. But we are dealing with the inherent human tendency to seek out “others” to hate and mistrust. It will take time to move the community forward.

I was in the Religion Roundtable and heard you loud and clear on your experience of religion as a gay man. I don’t have an answer as far as how progressives talk about LGBT issues; progressives tend to be a little to the right of me But I wanted to let you know at least one straight white female heard you.

Sorry we didn’t cross paths at YK; I would have liked to meet you.

I agree there’s a lot of people in the so-called “net-roots” (mostly white men, hmmm), who want to operate in a fairly instrumental manner, that is, do what it takes to win, not necessarily what is right. But what makes me optimistic, still, is that the blogosphere is a lot bigger than what was on display this past weekend in Vegas and much more open to the kind of pushing you are doing than just about every other system I can think of.

So have heart, and keep on keepin on!

Micah

There is no two party system in America..just one big one with left(dem) and right (gop) wings.

We need another answer