Sunrise in America, part II

If you’re like me, you’ve been reading and listening to endless commentaries on the election—what happened and why, what lessons are to be learned, where we go next. Of the many, many post-election pearls of wit and wisdom, here are some I thought were especially good. If you haven’t already read them, take a look:

• Gail Collins (New York Times opinion columnist) on lessons from the election. I really enjoy her writing—her humor, her sort of down-home presence. And, of course, her politics.

• David Brooks (New York Times opinion columnist) with a very different “take” on what the Republicans should learn from this election, especially about the changing face of America. Brooks is the NYT’s most noted conservative columnist, yet I very often am challenged by his thinking and learn a lot from him. Instead of scolding, this column “schools” the Republican party in a most thoughtful way.

• Richard Socarides (former special assistant to President Clinton on LGBT issues— and son of a prominent psychiatrist, Charles Socarides, one of the prime proponents of so-called “conversion therapy” for LGBT folks) commenting on the amazing progress toward equal rights for LGBTQ folks we saw in this election. The steps forward were remarkable, and so is the deep shift in attitudes that these steps reflect. Which leads me to …

• Glenda Russell (the person who probably knows more than anyone else in the nation (the world?) about the impact of anti-LGBT politics on queer folks) writing about on the meaning of these events for the LGBTQ community. The positive across-the-board results were unexpected, and this piece discusses how we got here and where we go next.

•  Finally, to highlight the speed with which LGBTQ rights have changed, yesterday, Colorado’s Democratic legislators elected the state’s first openly gay Speaker of the House. This is an especially poignant event given that it was exactly 20 years ago, on November 2, 1992, to be precise, that Colorado voters passed the now-notorious Amendment 2, which literally legalized discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, leading Colorado to be branded the "Hate State." 

In case anyone thought “that hopey changey thing” wasn’t working …