LGBT Aimlessness -- Victory Blindness, AWOL Leadership, and Trans Panic

Over the past month I've been writing about the crisis facing the American LGBTQ movement as some newer voices, in the name of intersectionality, are beginning to divert the agenda into the realm of Middle East geopolitics colored by anti-Semitism. But as prejudice grows within the grassroots, diverting the movement's energies, there is an even more critical failure - the aimlessness at the top due to a lack of national leadership.

I was listening to some 60s R&B the other night, and Otis Redding appeared in the playlist singing, "A Change is Gonna Come." Yes, it is. Change is always coming. After huge (not yuge, but huge) victories around open LGBT military service and marriage equality, it's no surprise that the movement leadership would take a moment to celebrate and savor the successes before getting back to work. As is often the case, however, after victory comes complacency, and since there is no such thing as total victory in our political system, complacency is simply unacceptable. My colleague, Michaelangelo Signorile, has long called this flaw, "victory blindness," and his analysis is echoed by another colleague, Kerry Eleveld.

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