Thinking back

In my lifetime we’ve made a lot of progress.

When I was born, Jim Crow segregation laws poisoned the U.S. south, although Rosa Parks had already ignited a firestorm by refusing to give up her bus seat. Homosexuality was illegal in all 50 states and it was still kosher to pay women less than men for the same job. This month our black president has chosen a gay Latino poet to read at his second inauguration. In Obama’s first term 43% of his appointees were women. The new United States congress opens with a record number of out LGB members and Tammy Baldwin as the first openly gay senator. Okay, Obama’s second term cabinet could be more diverse – but I was born during Eisenhower’s second term and that cabinet was all white, all male and all purportedly heterosexual

There’s still a long way to go. Unemployment among young black men is staggering, wages are still stratified by race and gender, we have record income inequality, there’s been an upsurge in membership in extreme racist groups and last month the Southern Poverty Law Center reported hate crimes against gays from Washington DC to California. But it gives me hope to pause for a moment and reflect on all the changes that have occurred in the last 50 plus years. Equity seemed an impossible dream when I was a child, now it feels like a reasonable goal.