Being Out

Our daughter goes to a women's college where many of the students have been openly gay since they had consciousness. This allows them to use their intelligence, creativity, and sheer enthusiasm for life as most other adolescents do. They are high achieving, beautifully conceived young women, all shapes and sizes and colors, too.

This is the difference between her generation and mine. My generation, the Baby Boomers, had to live a lie for a long time before coming out. Harvey Milk was one reason why many in my generation did. I lived in San Francisco then. I knew Harvey. I was drawn to his charisma, and after seeing just the trailer to "Milk" the new Gus Van Sant film starring Sean Penn, I know I will recognize not just the person but the cause.

A group of Hollywood celebrities has created a wonderful musical that is both funny and tries to put an "American" solution on the issue of Proposition 8, the horrendous ballot initiative that just won in California, overturning the California Supreme Court's decision in May that said to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry offends the equal protection clause of that state's constitution. Click here to view the video, which is a lot of fun and has a serious message, too.

There is mounting pressure on President-elect Obama to include within his cabinet an openly gay member. Diversity is more than race. The nominee whose name is being tauted is Mary Beth Maxwell, a worker's rights advocate with a long resume of progressive activity. The position is Labor Secretary. So far, Obama has chosen centrists for the cabinet. Is it time for him to be bold and go beyond the safe and the conciliatory?

There is no doubt that within this economic crisis the rights of workers need to be examined and a new analysis of how we work, how we are insured, how we balance family obligations with work, and how we retire needs to be articulated. Just as the film Milk opens and reminds us of how courageous the "coming out" movement was, we might have reached the time when being out is a plus as a job qualification. There is progress.