I know that many of you can’t shake a sense of déjà vu since your vote—you know, that feeling that you’ve witnessed or been part of something before. Certainly, your vote had an eerie metaphorical familiarity—someone standing at the doorway of a great institution, protecting it from people who shouldn’t be there. But if the rest seems a little fuzzy it’s probably because you’re confused about the role you played.
See, you thought you were God’s warrior defending the institution of marriage from gay people. But really, you were George Wallace blocking the entrance to the University of Alabama.
In 1963, Governor George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school. He used the same arguments to keep you out of school that you used to keep us out of marriage. He used the same logic. He even used the same language.
I’m sure many of you are looking for a way to shake that awful feeling you’ve revisited a shameful part of history. I think there is, but it requires going further into that awful feeling, further into that history.
As many of you know, George Wallace, one of the biggest racists who ever lived, at some point, stopped, and saw your humanity. At some point he stopped and thought, “I have no right to take your rights away.” At some point he stopped and said, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” And devoted his life to undoing his deeds.
My guess is that if you want that unsettling feeling to go away, you probably need to complete your experience of deja vu and act more like the guy who once stood in the doorway of a great institution to stop you from coming in.
Sincerely,
Everyone Who’s Been Locked Out for No Good Reason