A gay's-eye view of Inauguration 2009

Straphangers for Obama

An Irish-American atheist, a French-Canadian photographer, and a black gay guy got in a car...

Surprisingly, this is not the start to a bad joke, it’s the makeup of the car that I rode in to go see the Inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday. After watching the concert on Sunday and being filled with the overwhelming desire to be there, I hopped on Craigslist to find a rideshare, tried my best to ignore every horror film I’ve ever seen and every stern warning my mother has ever given me, and 9 hours later found myself in a car heading from New York to D.C. with people I’d never met before and will likely never see again.

I won’t go into some sappy diatribe about how our new prez is bringing people together, and while we weren‘t quite clasping hands and singing "We are the World" once our little journey was over (conversations between total strangers who share different political and religious beliefs can become heated … who knew?), I remember smiling to myself in the thought that this isn’t a crowd that would be rearing up to see, say, John McCain become the leader of the free world.

Dawn of a new America?

Now I know that the Gay Agenda right now is to be pissed at our new President because … well, it seems like something new every day. But I must admit that I‘ve never really wavered in my support for him although I’d like to consider my support less “Obama is the best person EVAH” fanboy and more a simple belief that he knows exactly what he’s doing.

I’ve never doubted for a second that he is the most gay-friendly candidate in our history, and I have no reason to believe that his politically risky support for gays (his speech that tackled homophobia in the Black Church and other issues pressing to the community on Martin Luther King Day in 2008 was particularly ballsy, and the one move I‘ve never forgotten in all of the screeching and commotion about pastor picks in the past few weeks) was anything other than genuine and sincere.

In the trenches

There was something in that moment on the National Mall, with nearly 1.8 million other people, that was very broad in scope while remaining very personal. In many ways, Obama’s candidacy was about inspiring others to do better, and even with so many people crowded into the National Mall on a bitterly cold morning, I sensed a feeling of togetherness that I had never before felt within such a large group of people.

There was of course the mix of races that represent our new, diverse America, but there was also diversity of religion, thought, age, and sexual orientation. I saw a rainbow flag being waved proudly along with the American flags when President Obama made his inaugural address, and I particularly enjoyed seeing an older gay couple proudly hold hands while walking around the area, with no jeers or snide remarks from the crowd, who seemed to be saving most of their vitriol for our less than beloved President #43. I traveled alone for most of the trip, and got to talk to so many people who were different in so many ways, yet linked by their shared support of our new president.

Yeah, there were a lot of people.

As I write this, I feel overwhelmingly grateful for having gotten the chance to attend. I am eternally glad that I went, but was also glad when it was over. It was a cold, exhausting, physically demanding day that started very early in the morning and wasn’t without its headaches in trying to navigate a new city.

With all that said, I would’ve dealt with even more people, even colder temperatures, and anything else that was thrown at me just to say that I was there when America inaugurated its first African-American president. I think that thing in the air was American Pride, and it is a feeling that is so new that I’m sure some of us can’t even articulate it.  It was something that was drilled into me during my 4 1/2 year stint in the Army, but I never truly felt it in my bones until that point.

We are not yet, nor will we ever be perfect, but what our country has always possessed is the capacity to grow, to learn from our mistakes, and to remake our country, shaped by progressive values. Maybe this is when we start to realize the promise that seemed to be stripped of us for the past 8 years. This is the moment that will make gay marriage legal for me someday, that will give me the rights to adopt children if I so choose, and that will forever silence those who doubt what I can do due to the color of my skin.

I could see some version of this shaped by a million individual struggles playing out in the eyes of those who had traveled for so long and braved the elements to see this historic Inauguration. When it was over, everyone seemed to freeze as though they couldn’t believe it, but it was true. We had fulfilled our promise and made a bold choice to lead the country in a new direction. Now, it’s his time to lead and our time to get to work.

Yes, we will.