Also published on The Bilerico Project

It took almost three months, but the story about the hateful Montana GOP platform plank seeking the criminalization of gays has gone national.

The Associated Press ran a story over the weekend that was picked up by The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times, NPR, and there was even a story on a Montana NBC affiliate station. And more newspapers, I’m told, will be running the story in the next few days.

Why is this important? I’ll tell you why.

It’s important because this is happening all the time. People in charge are doing things that most of the masses would not approve, crossing their fingers and hoping it will go unnoticed. It’s happening when the Christianist agenda, even when unconstitutional, gets pushed into public policy through the side door. And this time they got caught.

It’s important because most Montana Republicans didn’t even know of the plank’s existence, and many are outraged at the discovery. This is just the kind of sneaky right-wing evangelical behavior that erodes our rights- even if it is happening in rural America.

It’s important because behind the scenes there were tireless individuals who wouldn’t let this go. There were people who realized that this platform plank had an impact on the freedom of all Americans, and they kept the legs under this story. They shared the story on Facebook, they sent it to their friends and local news organizations, they wrote letters and made phone calls. There were even allies in the media, the GOP – maybe unsurprisingly not the Log Cabin Republicans, conservatives and local human rights organizations that knew this was important – not just for gay people, but for everyone.

It’s important because it shows hard work, perseverance and a reasonable sense of moral outrage pays off. There’s a realization that activism still works, that sitting on our collective asses and bitching to each other doesn’t.

And that, my friends, is a victory.

PS,  Read this if you think we should rest on our laurels…

Update: Change.org now has a petition for the Montana GOP leadership to take the hate out of their platform.

Sign it. All the cool kids are doing it.