History – our history – took a giant step forward a couple of hours ago. As you’ve likely heard by now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

This is huge. It makes it highly likely – pending possible appeal of the decision by Prop 8′s backers – that same-sex marriage will again be a reality up and down this enormous state. It promises to open the doors to marriage equality to millions. (And the fact that the Ninth Circuit panel issued a relatively narrow decision, limited to California, makes it less probable that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear an appeal.)

The movement for LGBT equality has never been strictly linear, with victory simply following on victory. That’s not the way it works with any movement for human freedom, and that’s not the way it works for this one. We’ve suffered all too many defeats and reverses, Prop 8 among them.

In time, Prop 8 will fade to an increasingly obscure historical note, one that future generations will read about with incredulity and embarrassment, as a moment when the people of California let baseless fear and prejudice cloud their vision of what this state should be all about. A moment when California somehow forgot that the love of two people should never be a time for censure, but always and only an occasion for joy.

Let’s face it. It would have been even better to have won at the ballot box, either back in 2008 or some day in the future. That kind of win – at the hands of the people themselves – would have marked progress more powerfully than a court case ever can.

But that, of course, is precisely why we have courts and why we have a Constitution. It’s their time-honored role to protect the interests of minorities. As the Court of Appeals wrote in today’s majority opinion, “The Constitution simply does not allow for ‘laws of this sort’.” (quoting the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark LGBT rights decision Romer v. Evans).

All of us at Horizons Foundation salute the litigators, congratulate the American Foundation for Equal Rights, and praise, with all our hearts and souls, the brilliance and dedication of our community’s advocates – the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, Equality California, Freedom to Marry, GLAD, the American Civil Liberties Union, and many more – which have truly lead this epic and historic struggle.

Finally, we thank every single one of you who supports our movement. Your generosity has helped make this victory possible. Nothing happens without your support. This victory is very, very much yours as well.

With pride and gratitude,

Roger

In case you think I’ve lost my mind, let’s be clear. It’s not that I’m making a point of watching them all. I’ve got a pretty good idea where they stand on enough issues. But the debates seem ever-present on the many TV screens that face the cardio exercise machines at the gym I go to. A line of them right in my line of sight. Multiple Gingriches, proliferating Romneys and Pauls, cascading images of Senator Sanctorumonious. And like witnessing a terrible wreck, it’s almost impossible to tear my eyes away. I try – really – but it just draws me back.

But here’s the thing. Depressing and angering as watching – and listening to – these contests can be, something is curiously missing; the rights of LGBT people. Not that the candidates’ positions on LGBT issues are anything short of awful, yet raising all the usual LGBT-inspired shibboleths doesn’t appear so central to their game-plans. Remember the rush to embrace the Federal Marriage Amendment not so long ago?

 We’re simply not seeing anything quite like that this time around. Sure, assorted candidate surrogates are beating up on us, and, when LGBT issues come up, the candidates are reliably bad. Obviously, they still think there’s mileage to be gotten out of raising the frightening specter of equality. (It’s also true that Rick Perry tried some unabashed bashing with an ad that bizarrely linked gays in the military with children not being allowed to celebrate Christmas. But that didn’t seem to take him anywhere except back to the long-suffering people of Texas.)

But it says something important that the candidates themselves aren’t the ones doing most of the gay-bashing, and they’re not seeking headlines with anti-LGBT rants. And there is something good about that, because you know they would be putting homophobia front and center if they thought it would sell.

But it’s harder to think that it will sell – or, at the least, sell as big as it did in elections past – when polls show majority support for same-sex marriage nationwide. When a giant state like New York embraces marriage equality. When the repeal of DADT is an unqualified success. When they can’t point to a single instance of harm done to anyone by the thousands of legal same-sex marriages that have taken place in six states and the District of Columbia. And it’s going to keep getting harder for them to make political hay out of our community – because all the facts are on our side.

And that would be good news indeed. In the meantime, maybe I’ll try riding my bike more until the primaries are over.

Several reasons. First, it offers a simple way to communicate with Horizons’ donors, grantees, funders, and allies – all of our most important constituencies. A blog also offers a way to share some thoughts with you that won’t overwhelm your inbox (whether online or snail-mail).

Another reason for the blog is that Horizons sits in a unique position. Because our very charter calls for working with and supporting the full range of our resplendently diverse community – diverse by geography, race, gender, issue, class to name a few types – we try to take a broad view of the issues we face. That sometimes allows us to  have some knowledge or analysis that’s worth sharing.

Finally, 2012 promises to be a vitally important year for our community. It will be jam-packed, as they tend to be in historic times like those we live in. A ruling in the Perry challenge to Prop 8. Continued challenges facing nonprofit organizations. The Presidential (and other) elections. A blog makes it possible to be in touch about such developments in a way that’s efficient and simple (and doesn’t use our donors’ dollars).

So what will this blog be? You can expect to see a new entry every few weeks. Mostly, it’ll be about current issues or questions facing the LGBT movement and/or the Bay Area community. Occasionally, I may share some less-visible project or issue that Horizons is working on. From time to time, there will be guest contributors. And sometimes it may be something else entirely.

An undaunted and undauntable woman, my aunt had been widowed at a young age and raised four children – my cousins – on her own. She’d championed women’s rights for decades, and was nearly elected to the state legislature, which I guarantee you would never have been the same had she made it.

What struck me during the service in the picture-postcard 18^th century, colonial-style church, was this: of her four children, two are straight, one gay, and the other lesbian. All four and their respective spouses, of course, had come. Yes, spouses, because we were in largely liberated New England, where marriage between people of the same gender has become the norm. The women had married in Connecticut, the men in Massachusetts.

While certainly I – like many of you – have been to plenty of events where same-sex couples were acknowledged, there was something extraordinary about being there, where “Wanda and Bev” were, in every way, on equal footing with “Mark and Jean,” as “Peter and Rick” were with “Kevin and Laura.” In the slide show of my aunt’s life that looped during the reception, all the couples got equal billing.

It was the most natural thing in the world. Which, of course, is how it should be everywhere for everyone all the time.

But we know it’s not. In much of the country, the same-sex couples not only wouldn’t be married, but would be compelled – to avoid controversy, at the least – to keep their single most important relationship quiet, concealed, out of sight. And marriage? Still all but unthinkable in far too many places.

At the same time, there’s much to be encouraged about. With the exceptions of Maine and Rhode Island, New England has full marriage equality. As does D.C. As does Iowa. New York, of course, brought us all a stunning and important victory this past summer, doubling overnight the number of people with access to full marriage rights. The Perry case challenging Proposition 8 still hangs before the U.S. Court of Appeals, with a favorable outcome entirely possible. And this year we’re likely to see attempts – winnable attempts – to roll back marriage bans in Maine and possibly Washington state as well.

Unfortunately, we also have to play defense in places where the other side sees an opportunity to roll back what we’ve won, or pass anti-marriage-equality constitutional marriage bans in even more states. New Hampshire faces a possible threat of repeal of marriage equality, while Minnesota and North Carolina will have to beat back attempts to put anti-marriage clauses in their state constitutions.

It all makes for an incredibly complex and shifting field of play. And it’s one where more and more places will look like nearly-liberated New England, New York, and Iowa. And this country will become – in time – a place where more and more of us can be who we are, with whom we want, be that for a wedding, a family vacation, or even a funeral.

Thank you to each of you for your contributions that help bring this day closer all the time.

I just saw something wonderful and astonishing. It came streaming live from the Geneva, Switzerland headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council. There, to mark International Human Rights Day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech an hour or so ago – calling for recognition and protection of the rights of LGBT people. Everywhere. “Gay rights and human rights,” she declared, “are one and the same.”

What happened this morning was once unimaginable. Not many years ago, the United States government paid no attention whatsoever to the daily suffering and injustice experienced by LGBT people around the world. Today, the United States Secretary of State made our rights, worldwide, the focus of a major address at the United Nations.

(Yes, I know that last line repeats what’s above. I just have to say it twice. It’s that historic.)

Appropriately, Secretary Clinton acknowledged that the United States itself still has a lot of work left to do to protect LGBT rights. She recognized the many grounds on which people oppose us – political, cultural, religious – and said flatly that none of them serve as excuses. “No practice or tradition,” she stated, “trumps human rights.” She even took on several of the big lies about LGBT people – and knocked them down. (Read the text of the speech…)

Horizons Foundation isn’t an international LGBT organization, of course. So why am I writing this? The answer is simple. I believe deeply – and know that many of you do as well – that our quest for equality and justice in America, or even in the Bay Area, cannot be divorced from the struggle for LGBT rights throughout the world. An American Secretary of State would never have given a speech like this one absent a strong LGBT movement in the United States. And it’s countries like South Africa and Colombia and Spain that are leading other nations – including ours – toward marriage equality.

Even more fundamentally, the ties among us help define who we are. Notwithstanding all the obvious differences born of culture and geography among people around the world, LGBT people share, in one way or another, a unique human experience. And out of that experience – for so many of us – comes a common commitment to recognizing every human being’s essential dignity and worth.

And we are all part of that movement.
~ Roger

P.S.: It’d be remiss to omit mention of the countless courageous and visionary people worldwide who’ve led – and continue to lead – the effort for universal human rights, including those of LGBT people. Some of them risk their lives so that we all can be free. And, in particular, I’d like to salute Julie Dorf, Horizons’ former Director of Philanthropic Services, for her tireless work in the international LGBT rights arena. Quite fittingly, she was in Geneva today for Secretary Clinton’s speech.

Here, you’ll find new posts from time to time on the LGBT movement, issues facing nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and giving, and other topics. Most will be from Roger Doughty, Horizons’ Executive Director, and we also plan include guest bloggers on occasion as well.

We hope you enjoy! (And thanks for your patience while we get up and running.)