Former advisor in the Clinton administration and long-time activist David Mixner obviously knows his way around the Beltway, and he's noticed that the folks in the today's LGBT establishment/leadership circles are — my words — acting rather timid of their own shadows rather than as fierce advocates in a civil rights struggle. If we want the guy in the big chair in the White House to hold true to his statement, we'd certainly like the folks representing us to do no less. David:

These well meaning, hard-working and intelligent folks want a very neat time-lined, totally safe and predictable movement. One where, as a community, we do not publicly move until we are assured of victory. They don't want us to venture from a proscribed game plan that mostly originates out of a Washington-based political strategy to gain our freedom. They live in fear that we will move too quickly, make someone uncomfortable and put our political friends in a tough spot. Afraid to risk defeat, they believe we have to make everyone like us and be on our side. Most amazingly they seek the approval of others instead of insisting that others have to liberate themselves from their own long held myths in order to receive this marvelous gift that our community brings.

The cabal of powerful decision makers wants everything to be safe, clean and perfect before moving. Don't upset anyone, don't jump ahead of ourselves and most of all don't deviate from a well-laid plan that hopefully will eventually lead to victory. Every one of our allies has to be comfortable, the polls have to show us way ahead, and proof of victory has to be assured before trying anything new. The unpredictable grassroots could be destructive and create instability.

Sounds pretty good doesn't it? Except that it doesn't fit any model of success that I have seen in my near 50 years of organizing. In fact, my journey has proven to me that the unpredictable often is just the stimulus that movements need; victory often comes from an unplanned event that organizers could not have pulled off if they had worked years to do it. Most candidates would never be elected to office if they waited for their turn, had hard proof of victory and listened to the political pros. Our own current president is a perfect example of this fact.

One manifestation of the problem, Mixner points out, is the Boies and Olsen lawsuit, and the initial rejection of the challenge as a misguided certain defeat by LGBT legal groups.

The LGBT community has just experienced such a moment. All of the major national organizations initially condemned the current Boies and Olsen lawsuit by the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Now the community has embraced it as a bold and brilliant move. Today all over the web proud members of the LGBT community were sharing David Boies incredible Op Ed in the “Wall Street Journal”. My guess is that this case will become one of the great historic moments in the legal history of this community.

It's an interesting piece; this is the first of four essays Mixner plans for the week. The next topic up is the history of previous struggles for freedom and how they might apply to the LGBT community today.