Greens Look to Gays for Political Direction

Young environmentalists are looking to the leaders among gay rights activists to find their own groove in getting President Barack Obama to take a more proactive role in ushering more progressive reforms.

Politico reports that young environmentalists at youth activist conference at Power Shift 2011 voiced their feelings about setbacks after the death of cap-and-trade agreements and the damaging BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, combined with minimal action from Congress. They do, however, see the dismantling of "don't ask, don't tell" as a possible model of how to go forward in pushing for better environmental reforms.

Jane Hamsher, the founder of Firedoglake, observed the concentrated advocacy of gay rights activists like Lt. Dan Choi, who came to speak at a panel titled "What to Do When the President's Just Not That Into You."

"Dan and the GetEqual people ... showed up at [President Obama's] speeches," Hamsher said. "They were an irritation. They knew where the sentiments of the public were, and they were not afraid to go and tell people, in a way that publicly embarrassed the president, that what his actions were not meeting up with the things that he said he was going to do."