WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: Barack Obama bows his head during the invocation by Rev. Rick Warren at his inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the West Front of the Capitol January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States.

Yesterday I took time off work to watch the inauguration in real time. I bet that many of you had that chance – to stand next to your co-workers on an early lunch and silently stare at a man who looked incredibly young stumble through the oath of office and then give a speech obviously intended for the world.

Two moments in that inauguration stood out for me. They both are related to religion.

Rick Warren’s invocation was surprisingly inoffensive in its content. The emphasis was on inclusion and community and an end to hatred. These are good biblical references whether one is worried about LGBT rights or community organizing or poverty reduction or peace. The responsibility to include, to care about those closest to us is important to emphasize.

However, the delivery was like something off of the televangelist stations I flip by on Sunday mornings. How can a country induct its new leader – arguably the most powerful man on earth – and do so in the same fashion as the ranting on television? It seemed baffling to have the constant references to Jesus (a decidedly secular figure) at a Presidential event.

In an impressive move, Obama created that second moment that stands out from the day – he stated in his inaugural address, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.”

There, in a ceremony bookended by prayers and with the soundtrack of “Tis a Gift to be Simple,” Obama brought each American into the fold. He actually referenced Muslims and more importantly, he referenced non-believers.

America may be a country founded on religion, but like many populations, America’s is no longer as uniform as it was. There are many Americans who are religious and the separation of church and state is certainly not absolute or even far-reaching, but it is nice to have a President who recognizes that one can turn away from God and still embrace America.

Writing the year-end wrap-up today is hard and sad. Hard because this has been an incredibly eventful year for gay rights, sad because many of us, myself included, are so angry about Reverend Rick Warren, giving thanks for the wins might be harder than we would like. That said, here is a list of important successes and failures for the year:

The law of equality is evolving

The California Supreme Court found that excluding LGBT people from marriage was unconstitutional. It is hard to celebrate that win now, what with the passing of Proposition 8 in November, but we cannot forget how important the Court’s reasoning was in that case. The right to marry was rooted in the equal protection clause. That clause exists, not only in every State Constitution, but in the Federal Constitution. This reasoning will form the basis of many other progressive decisions to come.

That same court has also agreed to hear a review of Proposition 8. The attorney-general of California has called for the marriage ban to be stuck down.

A Florida court ruled that banning gay adoption was unconstitutional. The decision took steps to extend the equal protection law to a more robust protection of LGBT rights and commented that LGBT people should be granted the same level of protection as women and Black Americans.

Finally, New York Governor Paterson issued a directive guaranteeing recognition for same-sex marriages in his State. A challenge of this directive was brought in the district court and was dismissed.

This progress in the legal world has led to a high profile anti-gay campaign. We saw it during the election with Proposition 8 and many other anti-gay ballot initiatives and again with Rick Warren. But this backlash is part of the success too. We must be ready to deal with the most virulent homophobes when the sanctity of the exclusion of LGBT people is threatened. If there wasn’t some progress, there wouldn’t be a need for outrage. This shows us that the work in courts must now be echoed on the ground.

Barack Obama will be the next President

As upset as I am with Obama (more on that later), he has openly identified as a “fierce advocate” for LGBT rights. He has referred to LGBT people in all of his important speeches and has included LGBT individuals in his inauguration parade. He is not all that I had hoped for, but he is by far an improvement over the last President and is certainly the most progressive President on LGBT issues in U.S. history.

Part of this is the climate of the times – there are just more people comfortable with LGBT rights today than during the Clinton years. But part of it might just be his own commitment to improving equality in the United States.

From what we know now, he will likely not go to the wall for our community, but he will be a very sympathetic ear. My hope is that his administration will oversee the repeal of DOMA. It’s a long shot, but a possible success, especially in the lead up to the next election.

Reverend Rick Warren will speak at the inauguration

Yes, Barack Obama may do many important things for LGBT people and yes, an invocation is only a three minute prayer, but this choice indicates that homophobia is still an acceptable vice. Whereas years ago it was ok to fraternize with racists and anti-semites as long as they made noises about having friends who were Jews or Blacks, today it is ok to bring homophobes into the fold as long as they are progressive on other issues. This sends the message that promoting a lower class of citizens based on “lifestyle choices” is acceptable.

This is Obama’s fault, it is outrageous and it is a tremendous setback for the LGBT movement.

The United States failed to sign the UN non-binding statement on LGBT rights

This event is not so much a failure (notice the term “non-binding”) as an indication of how far there is to go for LGBT rights in the US. The statement said nothing about gay marriage, gay adoption even protections for gay people in the employment context. All it asked was for countries to eliminate the criminalization of LGBT people for acting on their sexual orientation. One line mentioned economic, social and cultural rights including the right to health, but it was part of a larger statement specifically focused on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In sum, this should have been a no brainer, even for the US.

I think the time when a statement like this can garner US support is very close. In fact, if the line about health care and economic rights was removed, I feel an Obama administration would support the statement.

The ups and downs of this year have been a bit tortuous. It is easy to focus on the losses, the backlash, the amendments and the inauguration. However, we need to remember that great progress is being made legally. Once the courts move to approve equal rights for LGBT people, I firmly believe that public opinion will follow. It is, in fact, the only way real progress for equality has been made in this country.

So donate to your local ACLU and Lambda Legal, keep an eye out for the Prop 8 challenge next year and the Iowa court ruling on gay marriage, talk to your conservative family members about gay rights while their mouths are too full to protest, and be sure to have a safe and happy holiday.

Barack Obama’s campaign was the most technologically savvy ever run. Part of that technological capacity was passed on to the transition team in the form of a blog and comment page on Change.gov, the website headquarters for Obama during these next few weeks.

The question the transition team asked this week of commenters on the site was, “What social causes and service organizations are you a part of that make a difference in your community?” The answer they got has everything to do with Rick Warren.

Here are some of the responses that give me hope:

“I have read Dreams From My Father several times, finding it personally inspirational and stimulating to my personal growth. Barack in his biography is remarkable in is objective ability to learn from personal mistakes. The time in elementary school when he slighted a classmate, the time when he experimented with drugs, the hard lessons learned from a failed community event in Chicago’s South Side…..

So I have every confidence that Barack will also learn from the mistake of inviting Rick Warren to give the invocation. As an old community organizer he should recognize that he has prematurely set up a culminating event of reconciliation without laying the required groundwork and without doing the necessary healing first, and without clearly stating the limits of religion, especially conservative evangelical religion, in government, and realizing the intense pain this would cause many of his supporters who have been subject to homophobic hate and after the abuses of the last eight years under Bush. This will go into his next book as an embarrassment that became a stepping stone for his personal growth as he learns to be a fine president. The time for Rick Warren might have been his second inauguration after there was an actual reconciliation to celebrate”

From Crystal_Eyes

“I am a straight married woman with three kids who voted for Barack and I think his choice of a pastor to speak at the inauguration is innappropriate as well. He should have chosen someone who was more ecuminical and open to all walks of life. In this most important event we need everyone to feel welcome and that will leave some Americans feeling left out, Please understand this Barack…”

From chala

“I am so very saddened by the choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. I cannot fathom your insensitivity on this matter. I have been such a strong supporter of you and for you to disrespect gays and lesbians in the way you have is a slap in the face to all those supporting human rights. My wife was disabled and very active in the disability right movement yet she believed that to oppression of one group is the oppression of all. I fear that this is a continuation of all our oppression

Would you have chosen someone that advocates segregation to deliver the invocation, or someone the denies the holocaust, or someone who strongly advocates the cloistering of all people with disabilities? Yet you have someone like Rick Warren with his open and strong anti gay views to deliver the opening remarks at your inauguration.

I am shocked and saddened Mr. Obama. I hopped for so much more from you.

Carl Doering”

From Carl Doering

“I am trained as a Christian feminist theologian though I now teach on global religion and politics. As a progressive Christian. I believe that the ‘revolution’ in the evangelical community has broken away from the Falwell-Robertson-Dobson obsession w/ sexual morality towards a more diverse agenda (environment, poverty, AIDs – only in Africa, of course, interfaith dialogue).

If Obama wanted an evangelical to make his point, why not Jim Wallis? If he really had to have Warren for some Machiavellian reason, then why not the benediction. Why the lead singer?
Why put Rev. Lowrey at the back of the inaugural bus?

But why two Christians at all? The Democratic Convention’s invocations were more diverse than Obama’s Inauguration.

Obama has lost my respect on this one.”

From K Poethig

But these are not the only voices heard.

“As Californians we expressed our voices at the polls Novomer 4th. Prop 8 won by a margin of 600,000 votes: 7,001,084 to 6,401,483. To provide some context for this vote:

Prop. 8 received 2,150,000 MORE votes than did Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was reelected in 2006
Prop. 8 received nearly 2 million MORE votes than Dianne Feinstein did when she was reelected to the US Senate in 2006

Prop. 8 received 250,000 MORE votes than did John Kerry when he carried California in 2004

Prop. 8 received 45,000 MORE votes than did Barbara Boxer in her landslide reelection to the U.S. Senate in 2004

Prop. 8 passed with approximately the same percentage of the vote that Barack Obama received nationally.

So I wholeheartedly agree with President- elects decision to include Pastor Warren, a man who represents a large portion of our country.

Thank You President-elect Obama for not excluding those of us who have socially conservative values!”

From netbrown

“I wanted to say, I didn’t vote for Obama but he has pleasantly surprised me from day one. I do believe that the abortion questions does begin with how do we reduced them. I’ve never thought it could be effectly advocated through laws, it is a problem of the heart. I know because I’ve changed from pro choice to pro life. I think picking Rick Warren for invocation was brilliant I saw the civil debate and he is a good and honest man who sincerely wants there to be conversations about those things we disagree. I think what I see is Obama being true to his soul. It’s a good thing…don’t sell your soul for anything. I feel President Obama is my president.”

From Teresa K

There are over four thousand comments on the site and a good 90% relate to Warren. What this shows is not that the country as a whole supports or opposes LGBT rights. IT does show, however, that Obama’s inauguration will be a divisive event, and event many of us will not be able to celebrate. That is the real loss this decision will cause.

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.

This conclusion is true if we are still defining “presidential” as a cocksure windbag who bonds with the common people by pandering to the lowest common denominator.

On cue, the media judged the candidates by how fun they’d be at a barbecue. McCain was lauded as a “commanding figure” while Obama was derided for coming across as “professorial.” In today’s politics, if you demonstrate your I.Q. your career may be through and a candidate can now admit having smoked marijuana, but not that he has experimented with arugula.

In 2000, the media gave Bush an easy ride because he was affable, but have learned nothing after his presidency turned out to be laughable. We watched Bush strut in his flight suit on an aircraft carrier with a gigantic banner claiming “Mission Accomplished.” When it was clear that the mission had hardly begun, Bush thumped his chest and challenged the insurgents to “bring it on.”

Well, they obliged and now thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead.

After nearly eight years of alienating the world with cowboy diplomacy, the media portrays Obama’s tendency to be humble as a political stumble. Meanwhile, McCain talks tough to the Russians as they continue to rush into Georgia.

At the forum, without hesitation he said he is going to defeat evil. But how does he plan to make good on his shallow sound bite with our military tied up in Iraq and our economy on the rocks?

Vladimir Putin has shrugged off the McCain crowd, essentially saying, “You and what army is going to stop us?” McCain must be acting like a galloping stallion because he knows of secret battalions that can be called on to defends the budding democracies in the Caucasus region.

At the forum, McCain also got a big hand by vowing to continue Bush’s policy of ensuring that tycoons can live nearly tax free. Such economic policies combined with Republican deregulation have sold out our country and helped fuel the rise of China – which not only has more gold medals, but owns much of America’s gold. Perhaps McCain remains so bubbly and blissfully unaware of the housing bubble because he has several million-dollar homes. Yet the media still builds him up as the common man ready to storm the gates, even though he has more in common with Bill Gates.

Of course, the enablers of America’s decline are Evangelical Christians who eschew their economic interests in favor of their bizarre moral fetishes. This penchant for the puritanical was exemplified by Warren’s voyeuristic question asking each candidate, “What would be the greatest moral failure in your life.”

Predictably, this carnival of confession and moral spectacle accomplished nothing and failed to reveal any juicy new “sins” that were not already on public record. Fresh from discussing the implosion of his marriage – a huge biblical abomination – McCain spoke out against gay people marrying. In the backdrop of this event was a low level controversy where Jonathan Crutchley, the co-founder of the gay cruising site Man Hunt, gave a $2,300 donation to McCain. This was odd, considering McCain reconfirmed at the forum that he favored Supreme Court judges who had cast votes to outlaw sodomy – the very Man Hunt product that had made Crutchley rich.

Horrified, the other Man Hunt co-founder, Larry Basile, pressured Crutchley to resign as chairman of the company. While Crutchly has been reined in, a new Harris Poll shows that Obama has only 68-percent of the GLBT vote.

Sadly, 2008 is looking much like the last two elections, where a compliant media joins forces with chest thumping evangelicals and closeted homosexuals to further degrade America’s greatness. If McCain is inaugurated, we will all be invited to the barbecue on his million-dollar Arizona ranch, blissfully unaware that our future is the roasting pig with a rotten apple sticking out of its bloated mouth.

Of course, the further we sink into irrelevancy, the more faith forums we will see – even as the rest of the world loses faith in our ability to lead the world. While Rick Warren is an improvement over Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, he must teach evangelicals there is a better way than the selfishness of modern conservatism, or it will go down as his biggest moral failure.