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Loading ...PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama slow on pledge to gays
06.25.2009 6:00pm EDT
(Washington) President Barack Obama promised gay and lesbian voters he would repeal a law banning their open service in the military, would do away with a federal marriage law and would champion their causes from the White House. In his first five months, he’s taken incremental steps that have little real effect and left some people feeling betrayed.
But he’s still willing to take money from a reliably Democratic constituency – he was sending Vice President Joe Biden to a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday evening with gay and lesbian donors.Some gay donors called for a boycott after Obama’s Justice Department, in a court filing, compared gay marriages to incest.
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate time to be raising money. No one is happy now,” said Richard Socarides, who advised former President Bill Clinton on gay issues and did not plan to attend the event. “On gay rights, the country is already in the age of Obama, but he’s governing from the Clinton era.”
Obama issued a presidential memorandum that expands some federal benefits to same-sex partners, but not health benefits or pension guarantees. He has allowed State Department employees to include their same-sex partners in certain embassy programs already available to opposite-sex spouses.
But that remains far short of his campaign rhetoric.
“At its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans,” Obama said a 2007 statement on gay issues. “It’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.”
Since then, he publicly has committed himself to repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they don’t disclose their sexual orientation or act on it. On Jan. 9, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs answered “yes” when asked whether the administration would end the policy. But as president, Obama hasn’t taken any concrete steps urging Congress to rescind the Clinton-era policy that even some former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have described as flawed.
Obama pledged during the campaign to work for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits.
In a letter sent to gay-rights groups in February 2008, the president said “I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate.”
But lawyers in his administration defended the law in a court brief. White House aides said they were only doing their jobs to back a law that is on the books.
At the time, even Democrats in his party criticized the move.
“I was profoundly disappointed by this action, particularly coming from this administration,” said Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay nonincumbent to win election to Congress.
Even so, Baldwin and other high-profile gay and lesbians and their allies still planned to attend Biden’s fundraiser. The minimum donation was $1,000 and some tickets went as high as $30,400. The event was expected to draw 160 people, although the DNC was not releasing estimates on how much money the event would net, especially given some high-profile defections.
Human Rights Campaign grass-roots chief Marty Rouse, Gay and Lesbians Advocates and Defenders projects director Mary Bonauto and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund President Chuck Wolfe all withdrew. Several other high-profile activists also did not intended to participate, hoping to pressure Obama to make good on his promises now.
The White House plans an East Room reception on Monday for gay and lesbian advocates to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Greenwich Village demonstrations at the Stonewall Tavern in New York City. The demonstrations are viewed as the start of the modern gay rights movement.
“Unless the president on Monday articulates a strong action plan, and is willing to do it with cameras rolling, it is going to go from bad to worse,” said Socarides, the Clinton adviser.
I hope the Democratic fundraiser for rich gay stooges ends up being a total flop. After the way they have blown off our issues, and Obama’s comparison of same-sex relationships to incest, I don’t see how we can continue handing them our money. The members of the LGBT community who went crawling to this sideshow should assume their rightful places now, under the Democrat’s chairs, because they have lost all of their credibility in the LGBT community. I say, NO Money, NO Support and NO Votes for Obama and the Dems until they follow through with their promises, and as far as I’m concerned, Obama owes us an apology!
Obama lost any claim to any loyalty the moment he compared gay marriage to incest.
Only an enemy would do that. The man is famed for his speeches. That crap was not an accident.
Obama cares nothing for any of us. No; he cares that we should cease to exist.
Makes me relieved I wasn’t one of the “Yes we can!!” giddy idiots (although I did vote for him). I would feel like the biggest gaydoofus sucker right now.
Let’s wait and see what happens on Monday. I’m not sure if it’s even possible, but if President Obama wanted to shut both sides up he sign some kind of executive order giving same-sex couples both federal and state benefits and call it something other than marriage. That would take care of the marriage issue for now, and both sides would be satisfied (I doubt if the religious right would be however, because as we all know this fight isn’t about the word “marriage”).
Alex, I don’t believe DOMA’s wording will allow that.
I don’t know why we are all surprised. I never believed he would lift a finger. He sat in that church in Washington and listened to the hate-filled rhetoric, he did not stand up and disagree as any intelligent leader would. He did not walk out. He was a member, and only renounced it when the heat was on.
Someone that believes what they preach won’t ever be a friend to us. The DOMA brief proves my point. He is not a supporter, he is not comfortable with us, he has no motivation to help us now that he has gotten our votes.
And for the ones saying be patient, you have been fooled. Why wait for something he has no intention of doing? It is not true he can’t help us…he doesnt’ intend to.
Here are things he COULD do:
-Stop DADT investigations and discharges. Declare national emergency or war status, the people are needed.
-Urge congress to vote to repeal DOMA. Make them do it…attach it to the health care law (it affects our insurance policies). Publicly deman congress do this….they are waiting for political cover obviously, he can provide it.
-Apologize for Rick Warren, that brief, Donnie McClurkin etc.
-Shut down the office of hate-based and community initiatives. Declare that since religion is bigoted against gays he will not give them any money.
-Sign an executive order that orders the governmental agencies to recognize our marriages. Start a constitutional crisis between the executive and legislative branches. Join the Mass case against DOMA…tell DOJ to join on as a plaintiff since the law goes against his executive order. Unprecedented, you say? Yes, but discrimination should not be allowed to stand.
He can do all these things, and would, if he was honest. Unfortunately in many ways he is proving he is just another version of slick willie.
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I feel as though we were played by the master pitchman.
Every LGBT individual should set up a donation amount for the next campaign and reduce that amount by 5% for each and every month that goes by without DOMA being repealed. Lets call it the “LGBT Donation Incentive Plan”…
Gay rights are not ENTIRELY about DOMA or DADT, and it seems that an alarming number of people who use this site have forgotten that. Additionally, you people seem awfully content to slam those efforts that ARE being made as though you don’t mind waiting for something better to come along. I wonder what would have happened during the Alabama bus boycott if black people had said, “Screw you, this isn’t good enough, we want it all RIGHT EFFING NOW!” Yeah, we want equality NOW and there’s nothing wrong with that! But there IS something desperately wrong with standing with your fists raised, refusing or poo-pooing any outreach. Don’t donate to the Democratic party! That’s great! That’s fine! But try to be just a little bit realistic about politics, Washington, and the way the federal government of America is designed: with THREE branches, each of which have specific CHECKS AND BALANCES to prevent the other branches from becoming tyrannical posts. Policies like DOMA and DADT are LEGISLATIVE policies and canNOT be repealed by the president ALONE. And ask yourself these questions: If Obama signed sweeping executive orders that designated all equal rights to all GLBT people, are you prepared for the inevitable backlash from the other large portion of society who doesn’t want us to have those rights? Are you willing to sacrifice the democratic process so that you can have your version of equality?
I’m sick of being called an Uncle Tom because my GLBT status isn’t the ONLY influence in my life. I’m not happy being treated like less than human because of my sexuality and gender. But I’m also patently unwilling to sacrifice what human dignity I have left to appease some sense of entitlement on behalf of those who identify like me. We are not “Uncle Toms” and we are not traitors to the gay “community.” We just understand the difference between fighting for rights and childishly demanding to be exemplified.
Most of these comments are ridiculous and sensationalist. “gays to the back of the bus?” please. As much as you’d like to flatter yourself and think the modern gay rights movement is like the civil rights movement of the 60s, it’s not.
Throwing names like retard around makes you look real intelligent to those of us with people in our lives who have disabilites.
Quit expecting the man to wave a magic wand and all of the sudden change the hearts and minds of everyone who has ever given you a hard time for being gay and make everyone join hands under a rainbow. You’re probably still going to vote for democrat 3 years from now anyway.
Yhitzak Said:
“Gay rights are not ENTIRELY about DOMA or DADT, and it seems that an alarming number of people who use this site have forgotten that.”
No, sweetie, nobody’s forgotten that. It’s just that DOMA and DADT are issues that Obama specifically promised to address. Or, more specifically, repeal. It is natural, therefore, that people want him to keep his promises, and until he does so it is unrealistic of us to expect him to address the many other issues faced by the gay community.
“Additionally, you people seem awfully content to slam those efforts that ARE being made as though you don’t mind waiting for something better to come along.”
Yes, “we people” are content to slam those efforts, because they’re token gestures meant to appease criticism. He extends benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees…except health care. How can he justify that? Is he afraid that if he extends health care benefits to the same sex partners of federal employees the government will suddenly have to pay out a small fortune in treatment for HIV and AIDS? Could that be his small minded reason for not extending ALL benefits to the partners of federal employees, or does he just feel that same sex couples are not entitled to be treated equally.
Don’t expect people to be grateful because Obama throws us scraps off the table when he has access to a kitchen full of food. He could make a genuine difference. He could keep his promises. Instead he offers gestures and expects us to smile like good little gays.
“Policies like DOMA and DADT are LEGISLATIVE policies and canNOT be repealed by the president ALONE.”
Granted. However, there is action that the President can take on his own, and it is action he has not taken. He is supposedly the most powerful man in the world, and yet when it comes to doing anything about DOMA or DADT he suddenly become impotent. You can’t blame the majority of us for wanting to shove some political viagra down the man’s throat!
“Are you willing to sacrifice the democratic process so that you can have your version of equality?”
Yes.
Where the democratic process stands in the way of civil rights and causes citizens to suffer, the democratic process should be sacrificed. What is more important – a process or the fair and equal treatment of people? If you genuinely feel it’s the former, I feel sorry for you.
The democratic process is important, but it should not be allowed to stand as an obstacle to civil rights.
matt Said:
“You’re probably still going to vote for democrat 3 years from now anyway.”
Guess again. I have no problem saying that I will only ever vote Democrat. However, if Obama doesn’t deliver then I will abstain from voting at the next election, and at everyone thereafter until the Party I have voted for and financially supported delivers on its promises. And if that means that the Democrats have to lose an election or two, so be it. At least the Republicans don’t pretend they’re on my side, which in a perverse sort of way means they have a great deal more integrity. You know where you stand with them – in the gutter.
I’m probably the odd woman out here. I understand the anger, and where you all come from. Although, all I gave Obama is my vote (I’m too poor to donate money to his campaign). I do believe to not give him any monetary contributions or support in congress until our goals as a community is met. As I said before ‘Money talks, bullshit walks.’ Yet, my own personal decision is that I’m going to wait and see the whole picture of his presidency and the good or bad work that he has done, before I make a decision if I will vote for Obama in the next election.
I contributed 3 times to the Obama compaign and am on multiple Dem lists for more contributions. I started a bout a month ago to write on the reply card: “Until the Dem Congress and Pres. Obama take POSITIVE action to repeal DADT and DOMA, I will give nothing to you.” I put it in their postage paid envelope and send it back to them. I encourage all to to the same. Money talks (or when they get no more from you). Spread the word.
I’ve read “Rinse, Wash, & Repeat” from alot of our gay sopporters on this site. Aren’t we doing the same? All I read on this site, is basically the same from every GLBT person. When the Congress goes on vacation at the end of the year, they will be refurbished, with a republican led senate, house & congress. Again we will be rubbed out of our polititions thoughts, hearts and minds. Rinse Wash Repeat over and over again. We need a strong back boned leader in control of our rights. Until then, rinse, wash, repeat, everyone, rinse, wash repeat.
One of the things that frustrates me about modern information distribution and journalism is its tendency to create or intensify news rather than report it.
For example, for the past few weeks, this website has published between 6 and 10 articles that featured our community’s discontent with the Obama administration in general and specifically the Justice Department brief in CA. Today’s news is a good example. It wasn’t good enough to have one article about Joe Biden putting out the administration’s point of view, an article that documented the community’s discontent. It had to have this *second* article to talk about how pissed off we all are.
Drum beat: we’re pissed off, we’re pissed off, We’re Pissed Off, WE’RE PISSED OFF! Read it, discuss it, and repeat it often enough, and it starts to stir up and intensify those feelings.
Are the articles creating more pissed off feelings than they were originally reporting on?
And how about accuracy? Check this out:
>…compared gay marriages to incest.
Anyone who has read the original Justice Department brief in the CA case knows that this is not true.
What *is* true is that the brief made a point that there is existing case law supporting a state not having to accept automatically the laws that exist in another state, if the other state’s laws go against their values. So far, so good, right? Here’s where it went haywire…the case that they cited in parentheses to support this valid legal notion was a case from Connecticut in which that state refused to recognize a marriage from Italy in which an Uncle married his niece, which was legal at the time in Italy.
Was the Justice Department guilty of something? Yes! They were grossly insensitive not to realize that our community has been hammered with comparisons to or accusations of incest and pedophila, and a sensitive administration should not do anything to further that stereotype. They should have found another case that illustrated “states rights not to recognize other state’s laws.”
But did they say that gay marriage was comparable to incest just like our worst enemies do? NO!
So, stop repeating this lie.
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There have been hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq–if you include their citizens, which I think we should–in large part because a lazy media fueled an emotional hissy fit in the general public. “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction!!!” “Hussein is in cahoots with Al Queda!” These ideas were repeated ad nauseum in the media for about a year leading up to the Iraq war, and the American public picked it up, parroted it, and supported the war based on it.
…and it was wrong.
As of the 2004 election–more than a year after the start of the Iraq war–more than 50% of those polled believed that Hussein had a role in 9/11.
Call me crazy, but I’d like to think that the gay community can do better than that. Don’t succumb to group think. Don’t succumb to fear/anger mongering. That kind of group think is, at best, not very effective; at worst, it kills people…sometimes LOTS of people.
>We just understand the difference between fighting for rights and childishly demanding to be exemplified.
Yhitzak, you GO, girl!
I’ve been arrested for standing up for gay rights. I’ve hit the streets. And written letters, and more. I’ve worked. I’m feeling pretty secure about my political resume.
We just disagree on what would work best at this stage of the fight. No need to call me an Uncle Tom and demand that I die or get my eyeballs plucked out.