The HHS nomination battle is getting personal, not for Gov. Kathleen Sebelieus, but for the sexual health of all Americans.

Sebelius has never played political games, so the petty behavior from the far-right reveals their extremism without laying a glove on her.  The far-right recognizes that centrist, pro-choice Catholic Sebelius will reshape the reproductive health landscape and lay a foundation for progressive policies based on solid American values like privacy, personal responsibility, honesty, and equality -- not only in the short-term -- but within health care reform.

There can be no doubt she is as politically centrist as Kansas is geographically, especially on sexual and reproductive health issues. The far-right wouldn't fight Kathleen Sebelius so hard if she didn't literally define the center so well. 

Out of touch with the vast majority of Americans on sex ed, contraception and abortion, the far-right is apparently also clueless when it comes to crisis.

Regardless of your position on abortion, I bet I know it on swine flu.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is exactly the kind of woman you want running HHS, right now, today, when epidemics break out. I've watched her career from its start, she is brilliant, compassionate, and tough as nails when working her way to solutions.  She is recognized as one of the most pragmatic governors in the nation, bringing people together in the center to solve problems, not play politics.

She had the vision to help make sure an entire city, Greensburg, Kansas, was rebuilt as a model green city after it was leveled by a tornado, demonstrating an ability not just to respond to crisis, but to see through it in ways most Americans agree makes sense for the future. She was an early critic of over-reliance on the National Guard in Iraq, rendering states less ready to face local emergencies, or deal with ongoing issues at home.

Issues like swine flu, should this become the worst case scenario the National Guard and others have prepared for.

The people who brought you the Bush Administration and the Katrina Response are stonewalling the Sebelius nomination in the face of a major national public health crisis based solely on ideology and stigmatizing people in the process.

Sound familiar?

When AIDS first broke in the early 1980's, the far-right used ideology to stigmatize gay people and worked to deny, delay and thwart public health experts who demanded swift response. The far-right continue their anti-gay campaigns three decades later while trying to "do the right thing" on AIDS in Africa, if not at home. 

But they keep tripping over their ideology.

HIV runs rampant precisely because of the far-right's failure to respond to facts with anything but ideology. They continue to deny the importance of reproductive health, family planning, and encouraging reality-based, healthy and responsible sexual decision-making by everyone.

In holding the Sebelius nomination hostage based on abortion, the far-right stigmatizes women for wanting to make decisions about their reproductive lives just as surely as they tried to blame AIDS on homosexuals. Their policies, far from being morally superior, are proven time and again to be failures and their political strategies, in the face of crisis, call into question their very ability to govern.  Their stonewalling based on ideology is allowing yet another epidemic to go unchecked, unless of course Americans once and for all see the far-right and their manipulative abortion politics for what they really are -- distractions.

I'm also gay, so this holiday season has been consumed with a roller coaster of emotion and rage at the selection of Pastor Rick Warren to lead a prayer at Barack Obama's inauguration, where the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery will also pray.

Until January 20th, I will be praying that those of us who disagree with the selection of Rick Warren will not compound the challenges we face on our journey toward equality by being disrespectful, booing during prayer, or otherwise thinking that this moment is anything but what Obama intended — modeling civility from a position of strength and conviction in his own progressive ideas about sexual and reproductive health and rights. I will pray that we see through the darkness toward the light within each of us, the light that allows us to see more compassionately those we don't  understand or definitely disagree with, yes, even those who would deny our very existence. In demanding equality we are claiming our right to journey through life on our own terms. To achieve equality we must not deny others in our effort to be recognized.

Obama is not moving toward Rick Warren and social conservatives as Congressional Democrats have attempted to do by hushing progressives clamoring for changes to many policies on sexual and reproductive health. Instead Obama demonstrates that progressive ideas on gay issues, sex ed, contraception and abortion are moral choices.  He invites Warren to join him, even while disagreeing on gay rights and abortion, to find new common ground.  When news of the Warren invitation first broke, I noted that the challenge was now Warren's to lead hard-right social conservatives past partisanship and bitter divide that has characterized gridlock in Washington for much of the past 30 years, to a new place of civility that Obama is attempting to create in our politics. It appears Warren is taking some initial steps in Obama's direction.

These are generational changes we are participating in and they are being led and defined by arguably the most progressive new administration in history. Obama recognizes that to get movement on the policies we must change, our democracy requires change as well — this was the premise of his campaign — and it is the surest path toward full equality strategically. Democracy is not designed to produce instant reward, does not offer immediate gratification, is not about wholesale change. It is messy, takes time and most importantly requires we understand that we must do the careful, respectful work of education to bring people who fear change along on our journey.

Anthony B. Pinn has a tremendous piece today about this at Religion Dispatches, in which he concludes:

It is unreasonable to think President-elect Obama can or should resolve the conflict over religiously informed opinions when this very task has befuddled religious leaders for centuries. Obama will do well if he can help us make the tension between religious worldviews creative and an arena for fruitful exchange. What we can hope for is management of and respect for our religious differences and an attempt to map out ways to harness the energy of our shared quest for life meaning, for a greater sense of who, what, when, and where we are. And, in this way we might tame the more harmful aspects of our religious and theological orientations. Will we achieve this taming of our more harmful theologically-fueled tendencies…not likely, but it’s a task worth the effort regardless of the outcome.

Obama is making this effort, and the measure of his success isn’t the contentment of any particular group; but the ability of each group to voice its discontent, its disagreement and push a national conversation forward. Yes, dislike his selection for the invocation, and voice this dislike; but recognize that Obama’s call for common ground will mean not always getting what you want.

As a community gay people are tired of waiting, of not getting the equality, not that we want as Pinn writes, but that we deserve, as Americans, and most importantly as children of God (for believers). 

Are we more tired than women? More tired than African Americans? More tired than the current wave of brown immigrants coming to this nation of immigrants? More tired than under-educated or economically disadvantaged whites? Are we more tired than the many religions that make up the most diverse and religious country on the planet or non-believers who are continually disregarded when someone says "this is a Christian nation" and whose faiths will not be represented at the inauguration prayers?

Those who have held the moral authority, as gay people do now, have always been long-suffering, non-violent and respectful. The shoulders we stand on in this moment understood that when caught between rocks and hard places, it is the slow erosion of trickling water that softens the hard edges. They left the throwing of rocks, the verbal and literal stoning, the torrent of the fire hoses spraying water against flesh, the beating, bashing and lynching to those on the wrong side of history. The glacial pace of change is frustrating and every group excluded from the promise of equality in America sees that slow pace as our nation's tragic flaw.  It is also what allows each of us to fall in love with America as each generation works to fulfill her promise in new ways and thus remain a light of freedom to many suffering around the world.

That we might be entering a time when it is possible for us all, as Americans, to solve intractable problems of government with less animosity is a sign of hope.

There are iconic moments in history that have defined every struggle for equality. But if we who disagree with Warren disrupt a prayer, and specifically a prayer at the inaugural of the first African-American President in American history, the iconic moment captured on that historic day will cede moral high ground and goodwill progressives now hold. The gay community continues to deal with its own racial struggles within our community and black gay men and women understand the challenges in ways many white gays do not. To act out during a prayer will not help our cause where we most need the help, on gay issues and HIV/AIDS, within black churches.

Students in Georgia listened to George Wallace standing in the doorway, faced threats and derision, but quietly worked for change and won their rights. They sat at lunch counters where they were not welcome, quietly and simply attempting to order food from people who denied their humanity. Their quiet courage and presence won their rights. People marched and sang wishing President Kennedy would do more, some demanding it, many vocally frustrated by the political reality of the times. Women marched for decades just to be able to vote and then to have bodily autonomy and still await equal pay. Poor people of all races have always struggled to be heard, respected, educated, and employed — and during these tough economic times more iconic images of disparity between rich and poor are being etched in our minds.

Those historic and iconic images changed hearts and minds and led us to this historic election and inauguration.  We who disagree with Warren can listen respectfully for 90 seconds without creating a negative iconic image of people disrupting prayer — and we can continue to fight strategically for the rights that are ours by birth.  We risk too much moral authority — the same that Obama is using to reach out to Warren — by giving in to rage and emotion and disrupting a solemn moment.  We can create positive iconic images in keeping with the respectful and non-violent traditions of all civil rights movements by listening to those we disagree with, and standing firm for our lives and loves with every other long-suffering movement for equality, and in doing so, support Barack Obama in his efforts to bring real and lasting change to our democracy, leading toward the full equality we all seek. 

The promise of nature in winter is that light will return even in the face of the darkest day. It is the same promise that every faith tells different stories to teach at this time of year. In many ways, it is the genius and promise of America — that in the face of darkness we can choose either to add to it, or instead find light within and with quiet strength and grace shine our light in a way that others will see and greet, and be thankful for giving us the opportunity to learn again that there is light within each of us. That we can choose differently. That in choosing to act from strength and light, we create the change we seek.