Now That We've Solved Racism We'll Have to Elect a Gay President

Gay activists, still grumpy after the passing of Prop 8 in California and similar measures in Florida and Arizona, are hoping their issue will move to the head of the line now that we've solved racism with the election of Barack Obama:

NEW YORK (AP) - Gay is the new black, say the protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all.

Gay marriage is not a civil right, opponents counter, insisting that minority status comes from who you are rather than what you do.

The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples.

Racism was defanged by Obama's triumph, leaving gays as perhaps the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied.

"Black people are equal now, and gay people aren't," said Emil Wilbekin, a black gay man and the editor of Giant magazine. "I always have this discussion with my friends: What's worse, being a black man or a black gay man?"

"Civil rights have come much further than gay rights," he said. "A lot of people in the gay community have been condemned for their lifestyle and promiscuity and drugs and sex, so it's odd that when they want to conform and model themselves after straight people and have the same rights for marriage and domestic partnership and adoption, they're being blocked."

I'm not sure that guy is the best spokesman for gay people. You generally don't want to remind people you're trying to persuade of your client's faults.

Of course, there are plenty of people who make money in the racial politics business who will dispute that the election of Obama really changes anything when it comes to racism. They have to protect their turf and since their livelihood depends on racial unrest, they don't dare allow that issue to be considered resolved. By continuing to bleat about racism they effectively demean the historic nature of the Obama election.

However, the gay community wants racism to be over so they can be the new civil rights activists. I guess we'll have to elect a Gay-American president, along with his husband or her wife before we can put that issue to rest.

After that, of course, we'll have to elect a Pedophile-American, followed by a Bestiality-American, and then a Polygamist-American (no Mitt Romney jokes, please) in order to secure the "civil rights" of those oppressed groups as well.