Open letters from
26 gay men and lesbians.
Dear
President-elect Obama:
I am pleased to
add my warm congratulations to those people of goodwill
across America and around the world on the occasion of your
election to the presidency of the United States.
Over the past two
years you and your campaign have inspired America,
registered millions of new voters, brought millions of
first-time participants in the political process,
turned red states into blue and purple states, and
inspired hope during these very difficult times.
Now the hard work
begins.
Let me suggest
that, ultimately, nothing will prove more important to
your administration’s success and America’s
revitalization than these two things: keeping alive
the hope you inspired throughout your campaign and
assuring that all citizens have equal standing before our
government and under our laws.
You assume office
at a difficult period in our nation’s life.
We’ve gone seriously off track. Too many of our
people are hurting. We’re wracked by a
faltering economy and mired in a war with no end in sight.
Faith in our institutions, including the White House,
the Congress, corporations, financial institutions
and, yes, faith communities has declined
precipitously. Immigrants, once welcomed as the strength of
our nation, are now too often the targets of
frustration and resentment. Millions are uninsured or
under-insured.
Your task of
inspiring and sustaining hope is all the more challenging
because we’ve been disappointed too often. In 1968,
the year I founded Metropolitan Community Churches,
Candidate Nixon campaigned on the theme “Bring
Us Together.” President Nixon’s administration
left us divided and disillusioned. Candidate Clinton
promised to end the ban on gays in the military.
President Clinton failed to deliver. And the current
occupant of the White House promised to be a
“uniter, not a divider.” That’s more
than a violation of the truth-in-advertising
laws—it’s yet one more broken promise by
our nation’s leaders.
Mr.
President-elect, here’s my advice: Fight with all
your might to fulfill your promise to renew hope in
our land; settle for nothing less and fend off the
thousand daily tugs and nudges that would deflect you
from bringing hope to our people, especially those who have
been most deprived of it: the poor; minorities; urban
youths; immigrants; our gay and lesbian citizens, who
still are denied full equality under our
nation’s laws; and even more so, our transgender
brothers and sisters, who are the too frequent targets
of violence, hate crimes, and even murder that goes
underreported by the media and underprosecuted by law
enforcement.
In 1977, I was a
member of the first delegation of gay rights leaders
invited to meet at the White House to advise the president
and his administration. I have never forgotten what I
felt on that day. It was a different time—it
was legal to discriminate against LGBT people with
impunity. Psychiatry labeled us sick; churches called us
sinners. Even our private, intimate love was
criminalized. But on that day in 1977, I walked the
halls of the White House as an openly gay man and a guest of
the president of the United States. My nation welcomed me
into that place, and it was a powerful experience: I
knew I had a right to be there, and I felt at home in
the symbol of our democracy.
Mr.
President-elect, I am convinced that history will judge you
and your administration a success if you conduct your
presidency so that our nation’s people feel
what I felt and know what I knew on that day in 1977.
Let this be the measure of your success: Whether at the end
of your term, you have left citizens from every walk
of life knowing that the White House is once again
truly the people’s house and that the
government is the government of all our people; that all
people have equal standing there and are treated
equally under the law.
As you prepare
for your new duties, please know that millions of us are
wishing you the very best, and holding you in our prayers,
and cheering you on.
With all good
wishes, I remain:
The Reverend Doctor Troy D. Perry
Founder and
moderator emeritus
Metropolitan Community Churches
More Letters to the President-elect:
Tammy
Baldwin, Democratic member of Congress from Wisconsin
Daniel
Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day
Evan
Wolfson, Executive director of Freedom to Marry
and author of Why Marriage Matters: America,
Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry
Joe
Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign
Melissa
Etheridge, singer-songwriter
Michelangelo
Signorile, radio host and author of Queer in America
Tammy
Bruce, radio talk-show host and author of The New
American Revolution
Kenji
Yoshino, professor at New York University School
of Law and the author of Covering: The Hidden
Assault on Our Civil Rights
Vestal
McIntyre, author of You Are Not the One
and the forthcoming Lake Overturn
Jarrett
Lucas, codirector of the 2008 Soulface Q Equality Ride
Michael
Lowenthal, author of Charity Girl and Avoidance
Suzanne
Westenhoefer, comedian and star of the documentary
A Bottom on Top
Jim
Buzinski, CEO and cofounder of Outsports.com
Perez
Hilton, blogger, radio host, and television personality
Carole
Midgen, former California state senator
Pam
Spaulding, Durham, N.C.-based blogger
Paris Barclay, Executive Producer/Director
HBO’s In Treatment
Lorri
L. Jean, CEO, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
Jeffrey
Prang, Mayor of West Hollywood
Jorge
Valencia, Executive director and CEO of Point Foundation
Mark
Leno, California assemblyman
The
Reverend Doctor Troy D. Perry, founder and
moderator emeritus, Metropolitan Community Churches\
Mara
Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for
Transgender Equality
Donna
Rose, transgender activist
Peter
Tatchell, LGBT human rights campaigner and
spokesman for OutRage!
Rachel
B. Tiven, Executive Director, Immigration Equality
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