Strange Bedfellows

Okay, so the really big “Gay News” of the day was that Martina Navratilova will be appearing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars!!  Mark your calendars, Live 2-hour Premiere Event on Monday, March 19, 8/7c. And no, she will not get to dance with a girl . . . that would be too much to hope for on live prime time TV.

But that’s not what I’ve been thinking about today . . . (well just a little).

Most nights I go to sleep listening to the audio podcast of the night’s The Rachel Maddow Show . . . no cable here, so that’s how I “watch”.  If something catches my ear, sometimes I’ll watch the video clip the next day via the interwebs.

Last night’s show was a gem . . . in a very thought-provoking way.  Two segments dealt with prominent/rich GOP supporters who also support gay rights.

The interview with Frank Rich (the second clip above) was so good that this morning I looked up his piece “Whitewashing Gay History” in New York Magazine.  Turns out the article is much less about unexpected GOP support for gay marriage and gay rights (Rich sends us to this NYTimes article from May 2011 for much of that).  Rather, the article details how our “liberal” supporters haven’t been consistent in their support . . . which only serves as a reminder that you/we really don’t know who might support us (even based on their past actions).

I also was reminded of the Civil Discourse Training “Talking About the MN Marriage Amendment” I attended at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church last month.  One of the main points was to be brave enough to talk to people who disagree with you or who haven’t decided yet.  Afterall, these are the votes we need the most if we are going to defeat the amendment!  (There were many other excellent points made in the presentation, but this is the one most related to the discussion above. Listen to the podcast of the event if you get a chance. Or this excerpt at the Episcopal Story Project)

SO, all of the above is just my way of saying that I’m still thinking about the Ash Wednesday call to be “repairers of the breach” . . .

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