Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: How to Feel Good On Inauguration Day
Tomorrow, Obama will be coming to Philadelphia to start his inaugural train tour to Washington (okay, it’s not much of a trek, but he will be on a train and he will be travelling). It is a historic day in American history and a historic day in the LGBT movement.
For many of us, the actual inauguration brings mixed feelings.
On the same night that Obama was elected, gay Californians actually lost rights granted after years of expensive and trying court battles. Other states, including Florida and Arkansas, passed regressive, homophobic amendments. On the day of Obama’s inauguration, a hateful pastor will be giving the invocation. But, the fact remains, Barack Obama won the election. It is an event worth celebrating.
Putting all concerns about Rick Warren aside, what the 1996 questionnaire revealed is that America’s new President cares about equality. He is liberal-minded, a believer in the rule of law and legal parity for LGBT citizens. He comes from a city with a large gay population, taught at a law school with Professors like Geoffrey Stone – a huge supporter of gay rights – and has many friends and colleagues who are gay and support him whole-heartedly.
I really like Obama. Despite the events of the past month, I believe there is reason to really like him.
Still, a President’s individual will does not mean that the clout of the office will be put behind big changes for equal rights. Obama may wish to have equality, but he’s not going to spend time and energy on it without a lot of noise from the LGBT community and its supporters. He doesn’t care that much.
Cathcart told us that we are building a house, slowly, and there is progress, but we need to do more. We need to complain, loudly, every time the President or a State official or population acts in a way that does not support LGBT rights. Even when the right is silent on gay issues, we must call for more changes, more legislative efforts and more work on acceptance and equality.
Just because I believe that Obama is a good man, one who wants full equality, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be yelling at him, loudly, to get on those changes, to make them priorities and to work to bring other Democrats on board. Creating dissent is the best tool we can give the next President to aid him in the struggle for equality that I trust he still cares about.
So, starting tomorrow, I will be celebrating.
When the announcement of Obama asking Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration, I was hurt and felt very betrayed. But I have to admit, Obama has a full plate when he takes office. He does have Gene Robinson involved, so the sting has been taken out somewhat. I hope to see the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repealled. Obama’s new press secretary said it would be repealed, so you are right. One step at a time. I will still wear my OBAMA T-shirt on Inauguration day.
When Obama gives me reason to celebrate, then I will celebrate, and not a damn moment sooner. So far his actions have left a bad taste in my mouth (and I’m not only talking GLBT issues).
He may have given people hope, but I have a bad feeling it’s going to be the same old shit comming from Washington when it comes to change.
P.S. I really hope I am wrong but from past experience, I fear that I am not.
I remember all the hope the community had placed in Bill Clinton. The result was DADT, DOMA and one Ex.Order barring federal work force discrimination, on balance… a big loss.Hopefully, on balance we will win more than lose with Obama, but I’ll wait and see.
Yes, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is awful, but it’s an improvement over the prior policy. It’s also the compromise Clinton was forced to accept. He gets chastised for DADT all the time. People seem to forget that he was mentioning lifting the ban during his candidacy in 1992. That’s more progressive than Obama was in 2008.
“Yes, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is awful, but it’s an improvement over the prior policy.”
No it’s not it because it didn’t change anything, homosexuals still are not allowed to serve in the military and if you are a homosexual hiding that fact in the military then you are violating that policy, even if you are keeping a relationship private and off base or while in reserve, or married to the same-sex or attempting to marry a person of the same-sex. All of that is forbidden and a violation of military law if you are in the military.
You still can’t be gay and in the military as far as the government is concerned and this applies to all of the government’s armed forces, like the coast guard.
It also implies that you can be gay and in the military if you keep it secret, but as I’ve explained before that’s not possible according to military code.
I’m not going to be watching the inauguration. Anything positive will be forfeit by the fact of having people like Warren and others that still have anti-gay views like they do participating in it.
Celebrate that kind of hypocrisy and negative thinking?
No thanks.
I didn’t really expect the site to publicize the fact that the concert today is free on HBO. I did kinda hope that they would as Bishop Robinson was giving the invocation.
That being said, the concert has been pretty amazing. The talent line up is incredible. I’m certain they’ll replay it.
I didn’t see Bishop Robinson give the invocation on HBO this afternoon. Did they cut it?
I agree with Rebecca. While DADT is oppressive by modern standards, it was an improvement at the time. The previous law called for a dishonorable discharge of any gay or lesbian service member. Finding a job could be much more difficult after such a discharge. Now, service members who “tell” receive an honorable discharge, and as I recall, there is no blot on their record. We sometimes forget how bad things were back then.
Nope, HBO did not show the prayer.
Amazing. Simply Amazing.
Well, HBO chose not to identify the DC Gay Men’s Chorus that backed up Josh Groban and Heather Headley. (Note that every other group was introduced or named.)
So HBO single handedly dissed the gay community twice in one broadcast. Heck, normally I’d have to watch CBN to get that much!
Anyone wanting to contact HBO:
http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do
Nice of HBO to start their coverage (presumably) AFTER Gene Robinson gave the invocation. And by not naming any of the choirs or choruses they didn’t have to acknowledge the existence – or performance – of the DC Gay Men’s Chorus.
Gee, suppose the networks will censor Warren on Tuesday as well?
SOURCE: Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire’s home page
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
Jan 18, 2009
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
Thanks Bud. Scary we thought alike. I posted that under the other topic as well.
Beautiful words.