DOMA for Dummies...and nobody else?

When the HRC reported about Bill Donius' article DOMA For Dummies, they brought an important issue to light. Donius writes a very passionate and reasonable article for the Huffington Post and outlines the specific reasons for who DOMA is so dangerous to the GLBT citizens of this country, and to America itself. All of the obvious and harped reasonings are there; civil unions afford 1,100 fewer rights than marriages, married homosexual couples often have to leave their home state in order to actually live their marriage out, Donius even uses a compelling second-person ploy toward the reader.

On the one hand, this article is incredibly noteworthy- it says what we need to be reminded of in a compelling sort of way. On the other hand, that is all that it is: a reminder. These arguments, valid as they are, are not offering anything new for the opposition to need to understand or see. Unfortunately, without new arguments, the gay rights movement becomes little more than a re-hashing of dated ideas. It becomes easy for what I will candidly refer to as "the enemy" to attack the homosexual case if that case is cast in stone.

Even more diluted, I think that the HRC does a wonderful job of giving credence where it is due in this case. Donius wrote a wholehearted article that we cannot diminish. But, by the looks of it, he became a member of the HRC after writing this article. I am starting to wonder where the "grassroots activism" of the HRC mission statement are coming in. Right now I am seeing a reporting service with a gay theme and a substantial amount of money to throw around. Can it be that the HRC has gained such a noble standing in society that they are afraid to create waves if they take too harsh a stand anywhere? Don't get me wrong, I love this organization, but our place at the table has yet to be earned (if, in fact, we choose not to axe the table in half) and the HRC is already dressed in its Sunday finest? Nay, our hands are still begging to be muddied.