November 13, 2008

The First Queer President

Toni Morrisson once proclaimed Bill Clinton the First Black President.
I'm no Morrisson, but doesn't it make sense that Obama, then, would actually be the First Queer President?
Hear me out: he has had to search himself, as a biracial man, much the way many queer people do. He had to straddle two worlds, accused of being not black enough for the Blacks, and not considered white by anyone who looked at him, but in reality the people who raised him, who most loved and cared for him, were Caucasian. He had to ask himself who he was, and over time, and much thought, and prayer, and soul searching, figured out a way to be himself and yet also bring people together.
This dynamic of facilitating people's view of you is something queers are used to. They have to come out to their families and help them along towards acceptance. They are sometimes out and proud in one area of their life, among their true friends, but not in another, for fear of putting someone off on the job or at church. This kind of management of self and constant negotiation of expressing one's true core: Obama and the queers have this in common.
So just imagine that, imagine in the future the first truly Queer President (and not just a symbolic one), at a time when the Mormons poured their money to overturn Gay Marriage in California, rendering less rights for queer married couples once more. You know, Rodney King and the L.A. Riots occurred under Clinton's administration.
So maybe it's time we all imagine the First Queer President. When I had this thought, I couldn't even do it -- the concept was so foreign and strange to me, as it must have been for all those people who marched in Alabama in the early 60s. But MLK had a dream.
His partner will be the First Gentleman, who will work to fight AIDS worldwide. Their children will be sent to the Washington DC public schools, following in Amy Carter's footsteps. The First Queer President will be a feminist; half his cabinet will be female, so will his VP, and he will support Roe v Wade, which will cause someone to call him the First Woman President. That is, if she hasn't already existed.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, she compared him to a black man during the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. See here:
    http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html
    Speaking of body parts...

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