elfs | The Last Gasps of Homophobia

In the past two weeks, an amazing wave of videos has broken out over YouTube. We've had Michelle Bachmann confronted by an eight-year-old, Mitt Romney sets himself up for a confrontation with a gay veteran, Rick Perry facing hecklers after his much-vilified ad. At the local level, Zach Wall's impassioned speech to the Iowa house, and in Troy Michigan, the homophobic mayor faced a calm lesbian family making a simple plea for their equal rights.

It's over, 'phobes. Gay people aren't going back into the closet. What they do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is no more or less squishy and messy than what you straight people do. In public, they're just individuals or, if they're lucky, families. Straight people don't have to create justifications for their families' construction, and yet gay families suffer both de jure discrimination and constant critical examination. This wave of videos only serves to show just how stupid that discrimination is.

It's such a beautiful cry of "Enough!", a demand for real equality, for the right to be considered equals, to not have to suffer that critical eye every time they're out in public. Their wedding rings mean what wedding rings have always meant: committment.

I don't know if it's the election season or if it's just The Time, but let's face it, for all the hate and anger Joe My God collects, the time has come.