Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Gay activists impatient with Obama and Congress
06.19.2009 6:45am EDT
(New York) Frustrated gay-rights leaders want President Barack Obama to be far more forceful in supporting their political goals, but they also fault the Democratic-led Congress and vow to step up lobbying efforts in hopes of seeing campaign promises fulfilled.
“We can wait for the president to try to move members of Congress, or we can redouble our efforts and get about doing that work ourselves,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Thursday.The two most contentious proposals on the activists’ agenda – both backed by Obama during his election campaign – would extend federal recognition to same-sex partnerships and repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars gays from serving openly in the military.
The president says he wants to work with Congress to achieve both goals, but many gay-rights activists contend he is moving too slowly and hesitantly. The frustration was eased only slightly, if at all, when Obama signed a memorandum Wednesday extending limited benefits to the same-sex partners of gay federal employees.
“The atmospherics were fine, but the substance was zero,” Ethan Geto, a New York-based activist and political consultant, said of the signing ceremony.
Obama’s problem with the gay community, Geto said, stems largely from the high expectations raised by his campaign rhetoric.
“He said the gay-rights agenda would be a priority for his administration – and he received an enormous amount of support from the community,” Geto said. “Now people are beginning to really question his commitment. … Gay donors are running away in droves.”
Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, which campaigns nationally for gay marriage rights, said he remains optimistic over the long term because the American public “is ready for change.”
“What we need now is leadership from the president, Congress and state officials to deliver that change,” he said. “I’m frustrated and disappointed that the administration has not yet delivered on the vision we share for a more equal America.”
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the longest serving of the three openly gay members of Congress, said many activists placed unrealistic expectations on Obama and underestimated the need to lobby Congress relentlessly in the style of the National Rifle Association.
“It’s not that Obama doesn’t want to do it, but you need the votes,” Frank said. “You can’t complain about the president until you’ve called your senator.”
Leaders of some national gay-rights organizations acknowledged Frank’s point.
“We’re working hard to secure the needed votes,” said Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “All these issues will take work on the part of Congress as well as the president.”
The gay-rights bill closest to a vote in Congress would expand the federal hate-crimes law to cover anti-gay violence. It has passed the House and is awaiting a Senate vote, but Solmonese said its backers are proceeding cautiously, wary of possible Republican maneuvers to derail it.
Later this year, action is possible on a bill that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
There’s no timetable, however, for the pending bill to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Obama says he wants to build support for the change among military commanders before urging Congress to move ahead.
Gay-rights leaders concede that Obama has his hands full with wars, recession, health care reform and other challenges, but they nonetheless feel slighted – compared to other liberal constituencies – by a president who, during the campaign, said he would be a “fierce advocate” for gay rights.
“Show us you are indeed that fierce advocate,” said Jody Huckaby, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Huckaby said he was particularly dismayed last week when Obama’s Justice Department defended the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to reject other states’ legal gay marriages and prohibits federal recognition of any same-sex partnerships. As candidate, Obama promised to repeal the act.
On the other hand, some conservative activists continue to decry Obama’s commitment to a “radical homosexual agenda” and have launched protests against some of the gays appointed to administration jobs. The prime target at the moment is Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, who has been named to oversee the Education Department’s Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools.
Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the responsibility for inaction on gay-rights priorities lies with both Obama and Congress.
“It’s shocking to realize we still live a country where gay and lesbian people can’t serve openly in the military, have no federal protections in the private workplace, and same-sex couples are entitled to no benefits under federal law,” Minter said.
“There’s so much anger in our community. We expect the president and Congress to move forward.”
If we get ENDA (to end workplace and housing discrimination) and an inclusive hate crimes law, that would be a *really* *good* set of accomplishments for Year 1. I’ve already posted several times about how I feel that ENDA can set the stage for marriage equality by making it easier for people to come out.
If we get those two things, that would match what I expected from Obama in the first year.
If we can get DADT and DOMA repealed within years 2 and 3, then I think Obama’s administration will have been a smashing success. If we get all that within three years, it beats the crap out of what we’ve gotten from all other presidential administrations combined.
Obama’s problem isn’t about high expectations or moving slowly. His problem is that he’s actually rolling us backward on the very issues Democrats have (until recently) been trying to push us forward. There was nothing wrong with our expectations. The failure is in being more socially conservative than many Republicans, some of whom are looking pretty good right about now.
>The Democrats have no excuses. We’ve been EXTREMELY patient
When you look at it from the point of view of us having been locked out of federal progress since the Republicans took over congress in ‘94, then yes you have been patient. When you look at it in terms of how badly we were scapegoated right after the 2003 announcement of marriage equality in MA and all during the 2004 election cycle, then yes you have been patient.
When you look at it in terms of expectations for a party that’s held both congress and the presidency for a whopping six months, then you look like a whining baby. (Sorry!)
Just because you want immediate gratification about these issues doesn’t mean that congress and presidential politics and policy making can accommodate you. As Frank and others are saying, there’s a *process* to all of this, and it involves rounding up and securing votes in congress, which is not an easy thing to do.
Back in 1989, just after we passed our version of ENDA here in MA after a decade of effort, the lead lobbyist (Arlene Isaacson?) spoke to an LGBT group within our company. She started her talk with, “If you like good sausage or good politics, don’t take too close a look at how either are made.” She relayed story after story about the types of things that they had to do to make sure that a promised vote on our ENDA law didn’t “get away.” My “favorite” part of the story was how she had her people shadow legislators the day of the vote–offer to drive them to work, go to breakfast with them, and more–just to make sure that they were present in the legislative chamber to cast their vote for our cause. (There was a recent vote in NH that didn’t go our way, and they cited that it was vacation season and many legislators had taken the day off….)
So, please ease up on Barney, will ya? He understands how congress works, and he’s really good at working the halls of congress. All he’s saying is that there is a process inside the walls of congress that responds neither to the president or to rallies in the street…and he’s like us to understand this and help him out with it. That’s all!
To all these people saying give it time… how can Obama place a congratulatory call to coaches of a basketball team after they win some game… but somehow remain silent after civil rights victories granting equal marriage? Give it time give it time, my partner and I may not have much time, he is living in the US under a temporary visa, going through the employment based immigration process because I cannot sponsor him to become a legal permanent resident under the family class of immigration… and in this economy, employment based anything is nothing to put a whole lot of faith in, and yet our lives hang in the balance…
Gerry Fisher: Go “PERCH AND TWIRL.” Wrong. The House and Senate have been in the Democrat’s control since 2006. However, with WHIMP Reid as Majority Leader you wouldn’t know it. He pisses his pants every time the repugs even threaten a filibuster. Pelosi over in the House is just as much a loser.
Ever since the Dems included a gay rights plank in their platform in 1972 or 1976, gay people have been giving, giving and giving money to the Democratic Party.
On the FEDERAL LEVEL, what exactly has changed since then??? As a gay man who came out in 1969, a very good year, I can’t think of ONE Federal gay specific action that has changed my gay life or even had any significant effect on it.
We have had Jimmy Carter with a Democratic Congress, we’ve had Bill (no balls) Clinton with a Democratic Congress for two years. Oh, ya, then there is that fucking traitor Democratic GA Senator Sam Nunn and he is still a traitor.
I‘m 63 years old and you wonder why I‘m PISSED at apologists like you? By the way, that sausage story is about as old as I am. The President and the PARTY push legislation. We, as gay Democrats, should not have to persuade our own party.
Write here, then write your congressman and senator.
And put away your checkbook for a while, unless its for Gay issues. No donations if no action.
Conservative Christians are circulating letters calling the Matthew Shepard act the “pedophile protection act” and urging people to contact congress and demand it be defeated. They say preachers will be arrested for preaching anything negative about GLBT people. They are well organized and are actively opposing all GLBT legislation. (See Newsmax for one example)
While many of us are active and contact our representatives in congress, many (that I know personally) are not politically active, while the conservative have the organization of their churches and right wing organizations. Voting for those who oppose us is self defeating, so no matter what party, don’t support anyone who is against equality, but don’t fail to support anyone who is. We need more, not less. And we need to mobilize those of us who don’t do anything to take action and contact your representatives and Obama. Remember, they are hearing from the opposition, so we must make our voices heard as well.