I'm going to preface all of this by saying that of course I am in favor of marriage equality and that same-sex marriage should have always been legal and it's ridiculous that it's taken this long to even get as far as we are.
I am, however, more concerned about the fact that the victories today with DOMA and Prop 8 are overshadowing more important issues: the struggles that are still facing the queer community and the fact that the Supreme Court, despite being ~sooOOOOooo awesome~ about the rulings this morning, also took a giant shit on people of color this week.
It's understandable to feel excited, but as much as it is tempting to want to paint a big 'ol rainbow flag on your face and share the YouTube link for Macklemore's Same Love on every social media website, it's important to recognize that marriage equality is a pretty trivial aspect of the issues facing the queer community. Homelessness, joblessness, and a high rate of suicide continue to be prevalent in the queer community, specifically queer youth of color. In Greece, Trans* people are being put into literal concentration camps and in more than half of the states in the US, you can still be fired for identifying as Trans*. Not to mention the fact that many "gay rights" organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (you know, those guys with the equals sign) have a tendency to drop the "T" from "LGBT". Gay rights groups have consistently chosen not to support Trans* rights and silenced People of Color organizers, meanwhile honoring companies like Goldman Sachs, which create wealth inequality among POC and queer communities in the first place. In doing so, the mainstream movement for queer rights has thus far only served to advance the progress of the few: rich or upper-middle-class cis-gender gay white males, the Neil Patrick Harrises, Carson Kressleys, and Lance Basses. Marriage equality is popular because it's important to the rich white gay cis-guys who don't have to deal with other forms of oppression. My fear is that when it's finally achieved, the real oppression faced by members of the queer community will continue to go unacknowledged because nobody will care now that their Gay Best Friend can get married. As the video above put it so brilliantly, "Who needs money for bread when you can eat wedding cake?"
In coming to these decisions, SCOTUS has received a fair amount of praise for their "progressiveness", which I feel is a huge distraction from the fact that we should actually be really fucking furious. DOMA and Prop 8 almost completely overshadowed yesterday's ruling on the Voting Rights Act, which, within 24 hours, prompted 6 of the 9 states affected to push for new voter ID restrictions. The fact that same-sex couples can now get federal tax benefits is great and there is genuine cause to celebrate that, but we can't forget that we're praising the same people who just yesterday shit all over the rights of poor people of color.
I'm being critical, and I know that. I think part of it stems from the fact that I used to be one of those people that believed that marriage equality would be the solution to every problem in the queer community. I'm not saying that it's not a step in the right direction, because it certainly is, but in terms of equality for queer people, the working class, people of color, and every intersection in between, we have a very long road ahead.
