And finally, America is coming out of an age of bigotry and homophobia, into a world where the first gay Lord President can stand before you today with his husband at his side.
Last month, America did indeed seem to emerge from at least some of its past bigotry and homophobia. The justifiable — and enjoyable — euphoria over the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, remains suspended in the rarified air we can all breathe; for now. But “the first gay Lord President?”
It’s fiction of course — along with the lofty enhancement to the usual POTUS moniker. Such aspirations remain locked in the imaginations of the creative and fanciful among us, such as out playwright, Robert O’Hara.
O’Hara’s “Lord President” is Thom Valentine, the year is 2063, and there are zombies in the basement of the presidential residence deep beneath Mount Rushmore. Valentine’s hopeful election monologue opens O’Hara’s wild, dystopian fantasy — Zombie: The American — that recently ended its theatrical run in Washington, DC at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
Valentine concludes the speech with “the words of one of our greatest leaders,” quoting verbatim from President Obama’s second inaugural address:
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
For now, we can settle for a president who is at least a gay ally. President Obama promptly floodlit the White House in rainbow colors when the Supreme Court decision was announced. And he made a personal, congratulatory telephone call to the lead plaintiff, Jim Obergefell, which was heard on national television.
Zombie: The American and its premise are clever, and also pretty weird. But maybe not as weird as a country that routinely declares itself “number one,” but where racist vitriol hit the airwaves the minute we elected a black president. And where black churches are burned and congregants are shot by white supremacists in the year 2015. And not as weird as going all self-congratulatory over the prospect of electing the First Woman President of the United States, as if this is some sort of breakthrough. I mean, Sri Lanka had one in 1960. India, Israel, Switzerland, Nicaragua, and Britain all elected women premiers. Don’t cry for Argentina, either. Evita was elected president there in 1974.
So is a gay U.S. president really just a fantasy? And if not, will we really have to wait until 2063? Or longer?
“It’s impossible to say when the first gay president will be elected,” said U.S. Representative, Jared Polis (D-CO), the first gay parent elected to Congress. “If you’re asking when America will be ready to elect a gay president, I think we’re ready now. I absolutely believe that most Americans are comfortable voting for a gay president.”
Ready or not, today Washington can only envisage a gay president by sitting in a theatre. Meanwhile, back in old Europe, there have already been gay premiers and even women gay premiers. Elio di Rupo, openly gay since the 1990s, was elected prime minister of Belgium in 2011 where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2003. Luxembourg’s gay prime minister, Xavier Bettel, elected in 2013, legalized same-sex marriage there in 2015. His deputy prime minister is gay as well.
And then there’s Iceland. The country better known for its volcanoes elected Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir prime minister in 2008. Yes, a woman. And a lesbian. Her administration passed same-sex marriage legislation in 2010 so she married her longtime partner while she was still in office. (She wasn’t even the first woman prime minister of Iceland though. That happened way back in 1980.)
Was there a national eruption? Did Iceland fall apart morally? No. But in 2013, Icelanders booked hundreds of tickets for an event featuring anti-gay U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham so that they could not attend and instead leave their seats empty in protest at his presence in their country.
But a gay president in the United States? If that were to happen it could prompt a whole swath of religious fundamentalists like Graham to emigrate, if they haven’t already been raptured heavenwards by then. (Wait, now there’s an idea!)
But maybe it won’t be that drastic. Gradual change is happening.
“The likelihood of there ever being an openly LGBT U.S. President grows every day,” said Stephen Peters, a national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. “As LGBT people across the country in various positions of leadership – including in public office – continue to come out, they are helping to dispel myths and stereotypes about who LGBT people are and what our lives are like,” he said. “In our journey towards fairness and equality for LGBT people, we’ll continue to win by telling our stories and living openly and honestly.”
And hopefully, without any zombies in the basement.
