Don't Ask, Don't Tell... Don't Blow It

With an impressive first 100 days under his belt, Obama appears to be a friend and ally. But we've been here before with "don't ask, don't tell" -- and Joan M. Garry says this time, we must win.

BY Advocate.com Editors

May 04 2009 12:00 AM ET

Perhaps the pinnacle of these first 100 days was the passage of hate-crimes legislation in the House, with a Senate vote due as early as next week. I want that victory, long overdue -- much too late to save so many -- to be savored and honored. I don't want that victory blurred by an aggressive push on DADT that we simply may not be ready for.

At a fund-raiser a year before Election Day, candidate (and organizer) Obama encouraged us to be impatient with him. We will. We must.

But I'm looking for "constructive impatience." And if we have learned anything as a community, it is that our fight for equality demands all hands on deck. Gay hands, straight hands, presidential hands, congressional hands, and citizen hands.

We can't lose sight of our part in all this. And "our part" does not mean simply demanding that the president do his.

On so many issues of importance to the LGBT community, the president has some heavy lifting to do. But make no mistake. So do we.