Inch by Inch

My cable system doesn't get LOGO, the gay cable station, so I wasn't able to watch the HRC sponsored debate with the leading Democratic candidates, but I did read about it.

To my mind, the most important thing about the debate is that it happened at all. Ten years ago, when Ellen DiGeneris coming out made the cover of TIME magazine, it would have been unthinkable that the leading Democratic candidates would have participated in such a forum. Of course, it's still unthinkable that the Republican candidates would.

From what I've gleaned, Senators Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are all for legal rights, but none is willing to embrace the idea of marriage equality. I'm going to send all three campaigns a copy of our "Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality" so that perhaps they can quickly understand why marriage is so important. Yes, I know that Dennis Kucinich and Senator Gravel support marriage equality, but I think it is critical this year to have a candidate who might actually win. (Maybe I'm just too old...I did vote for John Anderson back in 1980.)

As the debate went on, the ELCA continued to debate whether non-celibate ministers could retain their ordinations...and apparently continued to do so all of today as well. You'd never know that from the official ELCA web site which has NO news about any of this, but Goodsoil does. I'll post as soon as I know something. Regardless of the outcome, the fact that the ELCA is seriously engaging the issue is progress as well.

We're not there yet, but surely progress is being made...it seems like every day.