No, she didn't. Her initial foray into this thread was to talk about _strategy_ WRT to an Oklahoma case, _AFTER_ the election. She took the position that she wanted to prioritize economic issues (job protection, ENDA which is being threatened by Tom DeLay) for what were persuasive reasons:
1. public opinion is very supportive and its important to bring along the issue, especially for people in pockets of this country where it's still pretty backward. (I sympathize completely. Stupid me, while the owner of my company (a native NYCers) knows that I dated a woman when he hired me, a co-worker had no idea. I made some crack about my proclivities recently...I should have know better. Not being southerner, it _still_ surprises me how different attitudes are here. Anyway, it was pretty clear she was horrified. And to this day, I will never know if my unemployed condition is somehow related. May be she turned up the heat on the boss, complaining about this or that, because of her prejudice, who knows?)
2. by capitalizing on an issue plenty of people support (or can't find a good reason to object to or find nothing at stake-- gays in mil, f'rinstance), you lay the groundwork for something a bit more controversial.
Nothing has been said about the gay marriage issue losing the election. Not once. She was talking about whether she was going to get all het up (!) and excited about the OK court case. It's not about disavowing the issue altogether, put strategizing and prioritizing so you can win _both_ issues. She went on to lay out an even more persuasive case, demonstrating that the two issues are inextricably intertwined.
You have to prioritize, as an individual. We have limited resources, as individuals. Same thing with collective struggles. Deb, through decades of on the ground experience in Texas, has made a decision about what she thinks the priorities ought to be for her--in Texas. So, why'd she bring it up here?
I'm not exactly sure, but this is what I hear, she can correct me if I'm wrong. I think people in Blue Areas simply have no idea how far behind some pockets of the country are. When I moved here, I was used to teaching in NY. I'd teach about gender and sexuality in women's studies or family courses. Talking about sexuality was no big deal. I'd use the film, The Celluloid Closet, in soc of family, gender, media, and even in Intro courses. No biggie.
I moved here. Some students told me that, in their Human Sexuality course, they were troubled by the fact that the teacher used the words penis and vagina without blushing. I rec'd comment cards pointing out that I said, "Shit, the AC isn't working in the classroom" or "Crap, I forgot the pencils." They didn't like it and asked that I respect their religion.
CRAP! Crap is a swear word here! I have a shock jock routine I use on the first day of intro course. It's clear that, like a former professor who opened a class by saying "Eat Shit" inorder to talk about Mary Douglas, that I was doing it as part of the lesson, to learn something about gender, language, roles, norms, etc. Just like a mentor, who's been doing the shock jock routine since 1985. A student actually reported me for using foul language. It was as if I'd used the words at him or just casually.
When I showed The Celluloid Closet? A male student actually walked out of the classroom -- and THIS was in a coastal university, not in the bible belt of Florida where they are far more conservative. The coastal areas think they are progressive and the inland of Florida is where the "rednecks" live.
It was an interesting anthropological experience, lemme tell ya.
Anyway, my point is that part of what is going on here is that this struggle is both national and local. Brian mentioned this recently, too, when he pointed out that it might be important for the struggle to operate in terms of the particular circumstances where you're trying to advance GLBT civil rights. In some states, push for marriage. In others, civil unions. In others...
Part of what Deb has been saying is that there IS an obliviousness to what the rest of the country is like. She's not saying we should crawl into a closet and pretend we don't exist. She's not saying that getting all radical about gay marriage and forging ahead anyway will be the reason for regression in Houston or wherever. She's simply saying that there's something wrong with what Doug, Liza, and Christian are calling "activistism" -- where you have no theory at all to guide how you going about engaging in social struggle. You just do. You just act. You don't ask whether, say, a million worker march is a good idea or how it will help you reach your goals.
Kelley
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling