[AtLast]

Social movements absolutely effect change in our political system- Vietnam is a very good example of this. Yet, it took 5-7 years for this to happen. There is a lot of groundeork to this. And starting as individuals outside of protesting (keep doing that, too), we must enter the political climate via local elections on up.

I know that for our particular queer population, it isn't easy to get involved with groups outside of our comfort zone, but we have to. We have to be part of voter registration drives, volunteer to work at polling places, volunteer for candidates (and some of them will not have ALL of our stances on issues), educate our families and neighbors and just participate in the system that I know we have problems with. But, the right-wing has done this quite effectively mainly due to the assumption that they represent the majority of the electorate. They do not! The US is quite diverse.

Yes, when I have gone to some candidate meeting at someone's home, I have received the "stare" - even in a region that is touted as very open. We tend to only join political groups with people like us- and that isn't going to get to the numbers we need in the US to be heard.

This movement needs to get our messages out much sooner than in the past- and we need to join forces with people that align politically but look different than we do and take our rightful place in our democracy. I have found that most of the fears I have about joining community action groups outside of queerdom are false and that I have much more in common with people outside of my usual social groups than I realized.

This movement needs to "move" along to action that will have an impact on our political institutions much faster than in the past.