Whenever an Obama defender goes through the effort of finding all the ways the president is your Fierce Advocate™, you can be hella sure it’s going to be picked apart as inadequate and flawed. Which is exactly what’s happened with gay DNC treasurer Andy Tobias “Accomplishments by the Administration and Congress on LGBT Equality.” Ooh, how inclusive, are the Republicans gonna get some play?
Obama has been in office about about 15 months now, so being able to point to, as Tobias does, a whole 30 things he did for any one community is pretty impressive. Except if that list of 30 things includes some pretty unimpressive data.
The list already received a satisfactory take down from John Aravosis, so we needn’t go through it line-by-line with a highlighter. But really, here’s No. 29: “Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons.” Here’s No. 15: “Supported lower taxes for same-sex couples who receive health benefits from employers.”
Last time we checked, producing web spots and “supporting” — the vaguest of vague terms, which we fully support using — weren’t exactly brazen accomplishments that change anything.
How about we take this to the next level?
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What’s most notable about this list is what isn’t on it. And the missing items should have taken spots 1 thru 10.
AndrewW
Laughable. Small “change,” at best.
I agree with Aravosis:
“They’re trying to trick us by compiling as large a list as possible, in the hopes that we won’t notice that the “accomplishments” on that list, for the most part, are all quite small.”
Thankfully, most of aren’t falling for this political game of incremental improvement. Equality is a simple “yes” or “no” proposition – a “fierce advocate” would understand that.
Henry Holland
Mmmmm….Andrew Tobias…..mmmmmmmm.
Yeah, a laughable list. I only voted for Obama because there was no alternative, so I can’t say I’m disappointed at his shitty treatment of GLBT issues.
Lanjier
Fuck them. Throwing us crumbs while protecting huge hate laws is disgustingly offensive.
It is like George III telling American colonists how happy they should be even though they are less than equal citizens. Like so many in history, the Democratic Party just thinks any small token will satisfy the gays because the Republicans have been so much worse. They are actually using Republican evils as justification for throwing scraps our way and telling us we should be grateful because we are adopted.
We are treated like Cinderella. Always cleaning house for them, and never being invited to any of the parties they are throwing for other constituencies. But the Democratic Party IS IN CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT NOW. If we are gay vets, the government kicks us to the curb. If we want to take our marriages across state lines, they government says the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not apply to us.
Donna
Sure, stop supporting the Democratic party. President Palin will be SO much better for us.
DR (the real one, not the guy who made post #12)
@Donna:
Enough with the scare tactics. If we ever hope to achieve any level of equal rights, we need to speak with our wallets and our votes. If the Democrats won’t follow-through on their promises, then we find candidates we believe will do so.
Give you an example….Senator Bob Casey couldn’t even say the word “gay” during a recent interview, and you think I ought to vote for him because he’s a DEMOCRAT?!? I don’t think so. What reason is there to vote for him? I’m over the “lesser of two evils” philosophy of voting.
EricSF
@Donna. The last Democratic President we supported ended up giving us DADT and DOMA. This president, you know, our fierce advocate, is no better. That’s why I am not voting for anyone on the national democratic ticket in 2010; and, if POTUS doesn’t actually start being our Fierce Advocate, I won’t be voting for him in 2012.
Michael
So this is suppose to make up for Obama obviously bailing on repealing DADT. Oh wait, I forgot. The US military has always been like Club Med where it bends over backwards to make sure it’s policies don’t upset nor offend any of our military members or their family. Or wait, do we always wait til we don’t have enough votes to finally try to vote on a promised repeal? I could’ve sworn the US military was used to giving out orders and expecting them to be followed through with no questions asked by it’s service members and I also thought the best time to vote on an issue is when you had the votes to see it through.
What alarms me is the insane by the administration and our military is a prelude to what could happen with Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill coming to our country one day. It’s as if we’re Alice in Wonderland and our military new main goal is to make sure every service member and their families members are AOK with any new policy, especially those concerning equal rights for all.
Andy
@Henry Holland: Nader was for full equality.
San Francisco Treat
You guys should read the purported “take down” linked in this post. While Aravosis does conclude that the administration is making small changes, he actually credits the administration 14 out of the 30 boasts by noting that they are “good,” “great,” or “nice.”
And no, I don’t think what we’ve seen so far qualifies as fierce advocacy. However, a few points for those of you raging against the POTUS:
1) The changes he is pursuing are helping instead of hurting (see, Roberts, John; Alito, Sam; see also Hate Crimes; Census; LGBT funding).
2) He is killing DADT – and I’ve argued before and I maintain that this is an easy lift for this administration and they shouldn’t get TOO MUCH credit for it, but they should get SOME credit – they didn’t have to do this. (If your response here is something like “show me the progress” you should do more research.
3) #21 on the boast list “Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)” – is a BFD. So is #10 – and Aravosis’s comment that this was Hillary’s doing misunderstands who gives the nods to whom.
LOOK – I agree we shouldn’t be happy with the pace of progress, and I agree that we shouldn’t let up until formal, legal parity is achieved and then we should move on to real parity. However, the notion that convincing a country that is still a little over HALF at least somewhat homophobic (with many states being much more so) that their usually religiously motivated biases are stupid and immoral is a “simple yes or no proposition” is naive.
AndrewW
@San Francisco Treat: Equality is a “yes” or “no” proposition. Research indicates that only about 1/3 of Americans harbor bigotry AND racism. They are the SAME people. They are “beliefs.” The die when those who harbor those beliefs die.
Politicians get to play their game of “false hope” by delaying our equality, not achieving it. That’s why they continue to delay it. If you believe in a “political solution” you have to live with that political reality.
We won’t have our equality until we enroll enough non-LGBT people. That’s not something we do as a movement. We never have. Until we do, we will only get more disappointment and more frustration.