As if the news of
antigay pastor Rick Warren's invitation to deliver
Obama's inaugural invocation weren't insulting enough
to LGBT Americans, we're now hit with the reality
that no openly gay people will be seated at
the cabinet table to weigh in on the next antigay
flap.
LGBT Americans
were hit with yet another piece of bad news Thursday -- no
openly gay people will be appointed to President-elect
Obama’s cabinet.
Less than 24
hours after the announcement that antigay pastor Rick Warren
would be giving the invocation at Obama's inauguration,
reports surfaced that Rep. Hilda Solis is the incoming
president’s pick as secretary of the Labor
Department. The Labor and Interior posts having
been the only two positions left for which openly
gay qualified candidates were still in the
running, LGBT leaders conceded that no out person will
be seated at the cabinet table.
“It’s now clear that President Obama’s
top appointees will gather in a cabinet room that does
not reflect the living rooms, board rooms, or rooms of
worship across this country,” said Chuck Wolfe,
president and CEO of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
Joe Solmonese,
president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that in spite
of “a very positive series of discussions with the
transition team” last week, no forward movement
had been made on behalf of gays and lesbians.
“Unfortunately, one week later, we learn Rick Warren
is giving the inaugural invocation and we're no
further ahead in seeing LGBT Americans represented in
the new administration,” he said. “A good
dialogue without real action is only half the
equation.”
Steve Elmendorf,
a former deputy campaign manager for John Kerry and
senior adviser to Dick Gephardt, called it “very
disappointing” that a number of high-quality
LGBT candidates had been passed over. “It’s a
very diverse and inclusive cabinet for every community
except for the gay and lesbian community,” he
said.
Not that
anyone’s counting, but the 22 cabinet-level
positions as announced/projected include three
Latinos, two Asian Americans, four African-Americans,
five women, and, yes, two Republicans.
Elmendorf
observed that the top-tier White House staff doesn’t
appear to have any LGBT people in it either.
“That just makes the Rick Warren thing an extra
kick in the stomach,” he said.
Though Elmendorf
sympathized with Obama’s big-tent argument about
wanting to reach out to evangelicals through Rick
Warren, he added, “but I don’t think
[the Obama team] has sent any signals to the gay and lesbian
community -- who voted for him overwhelmingly -- that they
want to include them.”
The inaugural
committee is touting the participation of the Lesbian and
Gay Band Association in the inaugural parade as a symbol of
inclusion. But the news of Rick Warren's high-profile
slot hit especially hard with some of Barack
Obama’s most avid LGBT supporters during the
campaign.
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 2