I was in Miami last week and had the opportunity to attend the Miami chapter of Join the Impact’s march against the Defense Of Marriage Act. Many city halls around the country were lit up blue in support of California’s own struggle for gay rights and people gathered to march in support of the repeal of the Federal bar to equal rights for same-sex couples.

It was a small collection of people, fewer than the crowd spilling out of the gay bar across the street and some of the stragglers, we later found out, were tourists and onlookers wondering what the signs were about.

Now I have been to a lot of protests in my life, many of them in other countries – Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina – and not all of them are big or inspiring. But I had the euphoric images from the recent Chicago Prop 8 march in my head and the Miami scene got me a bit down.

Still, it IS Florida, not exactly a gay friendly environment as I found out, and any noise is good noise, right?

My father went to the protest with me and when we drove back to the apartment he told me how the 60s civil rights struggle always felt like a few people you had seen too many times making noise when no one was listening. Even when you stumbled upon an organizing success, it felt like a flash in the pan. Now, forty years later, it seems clear to everyone else that he was part of a movement.

Well, today Obama released the name of a gay bishop who will be leading a prayer at the inaugural kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial. His office says that it’s not a move made in reaction to the Warren dissent, but I choose to believe that sometimes the office of the President-Elect doesn’t tell the whole truth and sometimes all those organizing tactics actually create change.

It’s not the invocation, but we should celebrate the symbolic victories while consistently supporting the organizing efforts of movements like Join the Impact.