As we sit back and marvel with jubilation, frustration, agitation, or aggravation (depending on your perspective) at the world around us.  We see examples of what we could be and how we could get there swirling around us in a never ending game of nanny nanny boo boo.  We sit back paralyzed by history and psychology while others pick up the splinters of our once bright and vibrant torch and run off in various directions towards prosperity and changes that we only seem to be willing to wish were for us.  We fight with ourselves daily getting madder and madder at a world that seems to have all but written us off as forgotten builders turned miscreants to be put down or put away as quietly as possible.  But I can’t help but notice what (has become arguably) our most hated group has done with their particular splinter of our torch and what we can learn from them.  So with that, I’m going to give you 4 things that we can learn from the Gay movement.

 1.       Be unapologetically who you are and don’t let others control your image of you

When you look out at the Gay Community, one of the first things you see is that they have a community on a national level.  What I mean by that is they have formed a group that gives voice on a national level to the individual members, protects the individual members, and provides for the individual members of that group.  The key thing about this group is that it is culturally defined by itself and is unapologetic about how it defines itself.  You don’t see gay people on TV or on YouTube or social media siding with people that don’t like gays.  They aren’t running around saying well this hate monger is right when he says that about gay people. They don’t call themselves “faggots, queers, butt-bandits, muff lickers” or any of those other offensive terms that people use in reference to them.

But not only do they not use these terms, but they labeled them as offensive and they are getting those words labeled as socially unacceptable.  They also aren’t making excuses for using words by citing esoteric knowledge or linguistic maybes from thousands of years ago.  When people don’t acknowledge them in the light and way they wish to be acknowledged, they raise hell until something happens.  More importantly, when people do something that hurts them or is seen as a threat to them, they take action and continue until something is done (don’t believe me look at this earlier piece on what happened to Mozilla CEO).  Bottom line, they are gay, and they don’t care if you don’t like it, but you will respect it or pay the consequences.

 2.       Never believe that you have finally made it, there is always another fight

When was the last time you heard gay people bragging about the achievements they made in the past much less some superficial accomplishment 40+ years ago?  When was the last time you heard them brag about having better than average employment?  When was the last time you heard them brag about having a higher than average median salary?  When was the last time you heard them brag about having a higher than average savings account?  Don’t worry I’ll wait . . . . . the most probable answer is that you haven’t.  You know why, because the success of their community in one area does not equate to success in all areas so even if they have achieved status in the work and financial areas they still have other things on their list they want to achieve.

They quickly move from one battle to the next without throwing a parade for every victory.  Since “don’t ask don’t tell” was repealed you have not heard one braggadocios remark about it?  But you have heard them use it as leverage for other things they want to accomplish.  They understand momentum and that it must be maintained at all cost, celebrate while in transition for the next struggle, don’t stop everything to party up a success.

 3.       Love your group more than you hate its members

When was the last time you were in a city or turned on the TV and saw to Gay Organization fighting with each other?  When was the last time you saw a gay movement initiative launch that didn’t have the full support of the community on a national level?  We aren’t talking about the two gay guys in the bar fighting we are talking about a gay call to action going unheeded because this gay didn’t like that gays religion or gender.  This one doesn’t even require another paragraph it’s so simple.  They recognize that at the end of the day they are all seen as gay, there is no need to divide themselves up of a national level or try to associate this gay with being lesser than that gay.  Do they have infighting, sure they do, but it doesn’t interfere with their national objectives and they don’t display it across the country.

 4.       K.I.S.S (Keep it simple stupid)

Gay people have figured out that the best way to keep things moving forward is to keep it simple for the masses.  They don’t present 20 different issues and then tell people that they need to find something and do it, they present 1 issue maybe 2 at most to the national media at 1 time.  Their message is clear, their voice is loud and it only says 1 or 2 things at a time.  And that message will always be centered on what is best for gay people in some way shape or form.  They understand that keeping it simple is the core to keep a large group of people mobilized, unified, and ready to go.

  So the question becomes that if 5% of the national population can create the kinds of changes that we are seeing in the social landscape as efficiently and effectively as we are seeing, then what could say… oh I don’t know, 13 or 14% percent of the population accomplish?  If that small percentage could hold politicians to the fire and get CEO’s fired and force the rest of us to have never ending debates about their suffering while not being ashamed of who they are and not letting anyone attack who they are, then imagine what is possible for us.  Yes we can talk about a gay agenda, and we can talk about slavery and racism having a profound effect on our psychology that they haven’t had and it would all be true.  But should this be something that we can begin to work on, Gay people are not assimilating into society, they are integrating into it, and hopefully we can now see the difference.   But how do you feel, are there other things we can learn from their movement, or can we learn these things?  Tell me what you think?