Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Barack Slaps the LGBT Community in the Face
I am furious with Barack Obama. As a politician who takes great care to include LGBT people in his speeches and parades and other formal functions, how can he look past the disgusting position Reverend Warren took on Proposition 8?
If I pointed out the hypocrisy, it would not be sufficient.
At a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser in Chicago last year, one of the speakers told the crowd that the best way to promote LGBT rights in the United States was to elect Barack Obama. I know that the HRC acted on that claim, campaigned actively for him and organized for others to donate to his election drive.
The HRC has called for Obama to rescind the invitation to Warren, and I echo their call sincerely. I also believe that this trespass on the part of the President-Elect should not be forgotten after January 20th. If the invitation is not rescinded, I urge all readers to send a letter to Obama expressing the end of their support for his administration and the end of their financial support for the Democratic Party. I also urge the LGBT caucus within the Democratic Party to make this an important issue, one that requires action and serious dissent.
It is one thing to muddle about talking about gradual change and the right time to make large amendments to things like marriage in this country. It is another thing to publicly endorse a discriminatory reverend who actively promotes homophobia.
This is a slap in the face. See it as one. Get angry. Then write, make phone calls, give money to organizations that pledge to fight this action and, if necessary, this next President.
I peeled my Obama bumper sticker off my car, and sent it in all crumpled to the transition office in Chicago with a note of protest. The address I have is: President Elect Barack Obama,
Barack Obama Transition Office, Kluczynski Federal Bldg., 230 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60604. I also sent a letter to the editor to my local paper, the Miami Herald. We must never stop protesting.
time for a march on washington-this time NO MORE MR. NICE GUY !!
So, if this pastor had said that black people marrying white people would be like a man marrying a dog or a man marrying a child then would Obama still give this guy the time of day? No!! He is using this guy to attempt to reach the evangelical right on the backs of gays. AGAIN! Just like when Clinton advertised in the south that he would stop the gay agenda. If this is how he is going to start off his presidency “of change” then we are all screwed.
Marc Miller:
God bless Bayard Rustin! He didn’t have an easy ride in this life, but he did it with dignity and beauty. If for no other reason, we should be pissed off and doing something about it just so that his work was not in vain. We just have to use our brains as he did. Any Bayards out there ready to lead? We need a plan and a leader, and his name isn’t Joe Solomnese….we need BIG brass balls out there…..like Bayard showed us. We have to stand in the face of it, but we have to do it with purpose, not just pretty colored flags and signs. We need organization. We need it now!
Does anyone find irony that Joseph Lowery–who worked closely with Bayard Rustin as both men tirelessly advised Martin Luther King–will be delivering the Inaugeral Benediction alongside Rick Warren?
Bayard Rustin was openly gay, and perhaps more responsible for King’s success than any other individual. He almost single handedly organized the famous march in Washington, advised King when he was in the Birmingham jail, and continued working for black civil equality long after King’s assassination.
Joseph Lowery witnessed the incredible things that a gay man could do for black civil equality. He knew the depth and integrity of Rustin’s love for his long time partner. Lowery knows that without the foundational work of Bayard Rustin, Barack Obama may have never been elected president.
And now, Lowery has to stand on a stage with Rick Warren who likens gay relationships to pedophilia, and believes gay people are irredeemably sick and sinful.
Obama has forgotten his history. He is standing on the shoulders of a gay giant who would have fought Rick Warren tooth and nail.
Yes, we live in a pluralistic country where diverse opinions matter. But anti-gay sentiments aren’t a benign opinion; they tear us down and seek to make us less human.
I agree with the author: if this president doesn’t get this, then we must be prepared to fight him. We can’t let the work of Bayard Rustin be forgotten: the social barometer of social justice is indeed the equality of GLBT Americans. Let’s get pissed people.
I am very disappointed with Obama’s selection here. This man is vicious and dangerous (Warren). Since when is hatred to be accepted as “diverse”. Where are the anti-jewish, anti-muslim speakers? Would they be considered inclusive? This is a sad day for gay Americans. We have been slapped but good. This country is not mine.
Oh Gary – S.T.F.U.
Gary Collins, Tolerating someone like Warren whose goal IS to diminish LGBT people is just as bad if not worse than being someone like Warren.
We CANNOT, I repeat, we CANNOT come to a compromise with Warren and his ilk, because his goal is not to compromise with us, he seeks to destroy us.
Stop standing up for your brother in religious delusion and wake up and smell the hatred which your religion espouses.
Gary – How eloquent and utterly out of touch. Rick Warren equates homosexuality with INCEST, PEDOPHILIA and CHILD ABUSE. This is NOT about embracing diversity, it is about asking us to accept someone who actively seeks to marginalize us. When Obama invites a KKK member to say a prayer at his inaugural, then I’ll see the playing field balanced. Since that would NEVER happen and because it is quite clear that Obama feels it is OK to marginalize gays (but blacks are off limits, becasuse, well, he’s black) – it reeks of self-serving hypocrisy disguised as a unifying gesture. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, he is insulting the intelligence of the entire GLBT community. The honeymoon is officially OVER!
Gary, I’m all for embracing others, but I will not embrace hatred, intolerance, and lies told in the name of God expressly to hurt other people. Warren can hate me if he wants, but I will not accept his views as equal to mine.
Perhaps you haven’t read his comments equating gay and lesbian committed relationships with brothers having sex with sisters. Or adults having sex with kids. Is that a belief? No, it’s slanderous misinformation.
Did you read his comments about helping people with AIDS, even though they got their disease from “gay relationships”? Gay people allowing for that kind of ignorant rhetoric is not tolerance, it’s self loathing.
It’s time to stop with the hate. Believe what you want, live as you chose. Let me do the same, and quit telling me what you think God thinks, especially when it is couched in hateful and untrue beliefs. Shame on Warren, and shame on anyone who swallows his crap like wide mouthed guppies, and shame on those who defend his “right” to incite hatred (and violence, which is never far behind).
“Ruby-Sachs: Barack Slaps the LGBT Community in the Face”………….AGAIN!
Gary, While I entirely support your assertion that we should not diminish each other I believe that your logic does not apply to this situation. Warren equated being gay with pedophilia. That goes beyond tolerance and acceptance and respect. It is pure hatred and discrimination and presidential approval for that kind of individual should not be tolerated.
Dear Gary Collins,
America does not embrace you.
To whom it may concern . . .
In the flurry of criticism Mr. Obama has received about the invitation to Rev. Rick Warren to participate in the Inauguration from gay, lesbian and other groups, I want to sound a voice of support. I am a gay man. I grew up in a devout Southern Baptist family in Tennessee. I have a theological education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of which Rick Warren is a graduate. I do not agree with much of what the Southern Baptists and Rev. Warren believe, especially in reference to GLBT persons. However, I do believe in Mr. Obama’s right and judgment to include Rev. Warren in the ceremonies. It is my belief and experience that as soon as one group begins to diminish another we are all diminished. As soon as one group discriminiates against another, we are all discriminated against.
I am ashamed of the vitriol with which my gay, lesbian, etc. brothers and sisters have hurled accusation and insults toward Rev. Warren. They seem to be living out the very thing to which they object — hate, divisiveness, and a narrowly focused “ours is the only way” point-of-view.
Even though I do not accept Rev. Warren’s beliefs about me or my life, I absolutely celebrate the fact that the best of America embraces both him and me. And I celebrate that Mr. Obama embraces that vision and is giving voice to it in the Inaugural Ceremonies.
I am the mother of a anti-gay hate crime victim and I am furious!! I am also the daughter of a now dead former Klan member. My husband and I live in our native state of Arkansas and advocated for Obama. I even convinced my life long republican brother in law to vote for him. He became furious when some good old boys beat me a few years back that my back was broken and the cops did nothing.
I am also of mixed race, hence an all too familiar “affliction” many of us faced when other family members sought to obliterate people of color, Jews, Catholics and gays from our nation.
My words are harsh but I akin this action to extending an invitation to a Klan preacher! If he is wanting to reach out to everyone I can send a list to Obama that would do just that. Why not invite David Duke or better yet, Fred Phelps.
Back in the nineties several of us mothers whose children were targeted by anti-gay formed our own support and advocacy group with the sole purpose to avail ourselves for other loved ones new to such violence. We did not want others to be as alone as we were. We had been targeted by Phelps and many like him since, based own our visibility and activism. This is a slap in our face and a very dark mark on the memory of so many who have lost their lives to this hate.
I just cannot state how angry I am and will seek all avenues I can to ensure Obama knows the major harm he has wrought upon our children who will see and hear of this action and once again feel betrayed.
Obama, you have more than just the lgbt community to loose, you risk the support of their families, loved ones and friends. We no longer take such behavior lightly and will await no longer for equality in all matters and justice!
Carolyn Wagner
Fayetteville, AR