Constructive Impatience

I disagree with the notion that Obama made some misstep here that he couldn't have foreseen. He knew what he was doing...and it's not about disrespecting LGBT people. It's about his moving to the center so that he can have a meaningful presidency. If he moves too far to the left, we will end up with a GOP Congress in 2010 in exactly the same way Bill Clinton ended up with one in 1994. And worse, he could be a one-term president. There are huge issues that this country is facing...and I do think that the loud cries from the left about this one issue diminishes us as if this is all we can think about. We're at war in two countries, our financial system is teetering on the brink, jobs are being shed, deflation is a real risk, the environment is in dire trouble and just about every state and local government is broke and facing extreme budget deficits. I want a progressive agenda badly; but we can't ram it down people's throats or the next election day will be a sad one.

Seriously? Is she kidding? This woman is as blind a the rest of the Obamanites. I swear, it's a cult. He was never that well intentioned for our community. He's had anti-gay preachers all over his campaign. We have no upper-tired representation in his cabinet. He flat out said he doesn't believe that we are equal with respect to the civil and legal aspects of marriage. He has made it quite clear that he wants to have nothing to do with our community. We will never be equal in his eyes, and we will never be treated as such during his tenure in office. This woman is as delusional as are the rest of his own private crusaders.

Hillary Clinton was more for gay rights and support than Obama, and yet the same people in the gay community that are whining about the reverend as Obama's pick are acting shocked and oh the horror, how could Obama do this. You're kidding right? You're telling me you had no idea that this was the way he was going to go? And we can preach and slam the reverend and obama, doesn't matter, they don't care okay, that's the why the reverend is still set to speak, come on, you shouldn't have blindly been supporting Obama over Hillary, he's never said he was that for gay anything. Hillary was very clear about her support and wasn't afraid to say it.

We need to stop being so election-focused. The Latino community (much smarter than us) brought their weight to bear on Obama AFTER the election to make it clear they expected multiple Cabinet posts or they would make things ugly for him. Our problem is that we think that everything revolves around Election Day. Other interest groups are not so naive. We may not be able to provide a lot of votes, but we can certainly destroy Obama's shiny public image. That's more leverage than any number of votes.

This is why the gay rights movement will continue to take one step forward and two steps back. C'mon, Obama (and Clinton before) have us by the short curlies because, frankly, who else are we gonna vote for? Any Democrat can pay lip service to our issues and get our support (because they know there is absolutely no way this community will comprehensively vote the other way), and many of them (especially Obama this year) could have won without us. And then, when he names Warren for the prayer, most of our community loses their minds and screams to the hills "Never again!" Get over it. Obama will make some positive changes for the community, and the lovefest will resume. The rhetoric from our "leaders", however, will always put our community in a negative light for the mainstream. Stop freaking out, stop giving the mainstream reasons to hate us more, and learn how to accept the political nature of the issue. Don't be so amateurish, or you won't be our "leaders" for long.

I have not heard of any plans for direct action on inauguration day. Shall we just bitch and send curt e-mails? What happened to real political activism like ACT-UP? We will not get equality the route we are going, unless we stand up and demand it with a loud voice and show a united and fierce presence.

Apparently the Obama kool-aid hasn't worn off of some people. You'll notice she says, "The president-elect is in the right place in terms of his record and on policy positions on issues facing LGBT Americans. ", yet gives not one example. We've been asking ad nauseum for someone to give us concrete examples of what Obama has done for our community, yet noone can seem to come up with anything. Hmmm. Could it be because there are no examples to give??? Could it be because Obama is nothing more than words, just words???

This woman is being ridiculous. She's overlooking the fact that pro-gay Rev. Joseph Lowery is set to deliver the benediction. (I suspect that because Lowery is Black and straight ..and Southern that the (white) gay establishment just don't want to see how well Obama is trying to balance these sort of things. Obama is not just the president for gays, you know. Moreover, Obama and Warren both are against gay "marriage", albeit for different reasons. Also, Obama and Warren share common ground that should be important to gays such as addressing poverty and AIDS around the world.

The main problem that sets back the gay lobby is the leftwingers among us who supported the democrats and vilified the republicans. Once we understand that we need to come together and support the business lobby, AIPAC, and others, we will wield more sway and get more things done. To my mind, this opinion piece is as much of a setback as Rick Warren is. We need to move on and embrace conservative lobbies like the Heritage Foundation. Being gay does not preclude being conservative. Marriage is a conservative ideal.