Barack Obama is America’s second gayest president (after Abraham Lincoln), so it is fitting that he recognized LGBT Pride Month today with a lovely proclamation.
Actually, it’s more like a sales pitch, with the White House listing all of their accomplishments on behalf of the gays. And gee whiz they sure does have a lot to say. Among the milestones:
- They totally ended DADT (except it’s still in effect, and even after it’s lifted later this year, the Army can still kick out trans soldiers)
- They have totally “taken steps” to eliminate discrimination in Federal housing programs, hospital visitation, and Federal employment (but not in passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act)
- They gave totally appointed LGBTs to high-ranking positions. Okay, yes, we will unreservedly give them that one.
- “…my Administration stands with advocates of equality around the world” but only in the most extreme cases, such as Uganda’s kill-the-gays bill. Oh, what’s that, you want to not be killed and you want to get married? Well, that’s just greedy.
- They are totally “working to address and eliminate violence against LGBT individuals” by enforcing hate crime legislation and holding an anti-bullying conference. Please do not suggest that there is any connection between anti-gay laws and anti-gay bullying. Look, he made a video just like Dan Savage!
- They created a National HIV/AIDS strategy and increased funding for HIV services and research. Okay, yes, we’ll give them that one too.
Obama concludes, “Every generation of Americans has brought our Nation closer to fulfilling its promise of equality.” Which is kind of him admitting that his generation is basically punting the job to their kids?
christopher di spirito
Dear Leader is the best thing since Lady Gaga!
Diddled on repealing DOMA and still opposes marriage equality but, queer Dems will donate to, and vote for, President Obama because, after all, we’re all terrified of a Sarah Palin presidency.
Or so I keep reading and hearing.
TJ
Firstly, it’s more than we’ve gotten in decades.
Secondly, it’s more than we would have gotten under McCain/Palin.
But, thirdly, and most importantly, there isn’t a Democrat who can take him in the primaries, and we need a Democrat just because of SCOTUS. I don’t care about anything else, as long as Scalia gets appointed Ambassador to Tierra del Fuego, and there’s a Democratic President nominating his replacement.
Elloreigh
The reality is thus:
The Democrats have been terrible at delivering on promises to do something about our issues, if they bother to address them at all. They have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, and have developed a habit of getting on board with our equality after they lose majorities or leave office and are thus no longer in a position to actually do anything beyond symbolic gestures and making nice speeches.
The Republicans, on the other hand, have opposed us every step of the way. The GOP is beyond redemption. Don’t give me the “but there are gay-positive Republicans, too” speech. A Republican is a Republican is a Republican. Partisan to the extreme, and those that are gay-positive tend to be only marginally so. There aren’t enough of them to overcome the majority who aren’t.
As for independents and third parties, call me if someone actually manages to put forth a viable candidate. Until then, I’ll be holding my nose to vote for the person likely to do the least damage.
Matt
@Elloreigh: The Republican Party is changing slowly, too slowly but is making progress. This is seen by the fact that the 3rd most likely Republican nominee , Jon Huntsman(After Romney and Pawlenty) supported civil unions and other equally protection laws IN UTAH, and has even wrote vaguely about supporting full equality when he was leaving the Governor’s office. If Jon Huntsman is the Republican nominee his record on Gay Rights will be similar to the Presidents, which is just short of full equality and will give many LGBT votes an interesting choice in Nov. 2012.
DavyJones
@Matt: If he is the Republican candidate in 2012, he’ll suddenly have forgotten about all of those positions, or else ‘re-evaluated’ them; Or he won’t stand a snow balls chance in hell of getting the ‘Tea-Party’ base to come out and vote for him; they’ll all write in someone else’s name…
delurker
“(but not in passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act)(but not in passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act)”
Congress passes laws, you idiot.
Hypocrisy
This is the hypocrisy I can’t stand. When the Republicans won back the house and one of their agendas was to protect DOMA, liberal and gays were chanting “where are the jobs” “we have more important things to focus on”, but now they are complaining about Obama..who BTW doesn’t believe in gay marriage so that’s probably why he’s not exactly enthusiastic about pushing it. Also i find it hypocritical when DADT was pushed by the liberals and democrats because they could have focused on the economy then also.
LandStander
@Hypocrisy
You seem to be leaving out some key pieces of these issues.
First of all, the House Republicans protecting DOMA is going to cost money. They need to hire attorneys (Some of whom could receive up to $900 an hour). They have also said that they do not know where this money will come from (Likely approximates average $500,000).
DADT actually COSTS us money; The military spent about $193.3 million between 2004 and 2009 to replace approximately 3,660 troops discharged “don’t ask, don’t tell,” according to an audit released by the Pentagon. Over six years, it cost about $185 million to recruit and train replacement troops and $7.7 million in administrative costs.
Therefore, your arguments are fundamentally flawed considering the facts…
LandStander
@Hypocrisy: You seem to be leaving out some key pieces of these issues.
First of all, the House Republicans protecting DOMA is going to cost money. They need to hire attorneys (Some of whom could receive up to $900 an hour). They have also said that they do not know where this money will come from (Likely approximates average $500,000).
DADT actually COSTS us money; The military spent about $193.3 million between 2004 and 2009 to replace approximately 3,660 troops discharged “don’t ask, don’t tell,” according to an audit released by the Pentagon. Over six years, it cost about $185 million to recruit and train replacement troops and $7.7 million in administrative costs.
Therefore, your arguments are fundamentally flawed considering the facts…
Fitz
Part of the legacy of soft support from the democrats has been an erosion of those who stood with us. and who saw our issues as everyone’s issues. I don’t want to be a petulant child who says “I didn’t get it all”, but I also am not willing to be the abused wife who says “I know he means well, you can just see it in his eyes”. The is an important practical and psychological connection between being a minority with less rights than everyone else and the relatively high rates of self destructive behavior that we deal with. It seeps down.
Things like “Marriage” aren’t important to most 16 year olds…but the lack of equal rights effects how the general public informs themselves about what GLBT means.
robert in NYC
If Obama’s administration stands with other advocates of equality around the world, then by saying so he endorsed marriage equality in the 10 countries that allow it. He’s gone from emphatically opposing same-sex marriage to “wrestling” with it. As an African-American, how on earth can he construe that civil unions are about full equality? I suppose he’d have supported interracial marriage or civil unions only for blacks who enter into one with a white man or woman and still not viewed that as segregation. He once admitted that civil marriage has a religious connotation whatever that is and is the reason why he opposed same-sex marriage.
Cam
The Dems weren’t going to do much, we were being told by people like HRC and Barney Frank to sit down, shut up, and to stop bothering them…
Well gays started boycotting Frank Sponsored fundraisers, doing sit in’s at Pelosi’s office and staying away from the voting booth and suddenly we get more action than we’ve seen in decades.
So keep it up. The Dems may be mealy mouthed and wimpy but at least they need us and can be pressured to finally do something for our rights.
I’ll take the group that can be pressured over the group that actively wants to jail us any day.
Fountouki
Ha ha. Great article. The snarky comments were absolutely appropriate here. Obama is a hypocrite. However, let’s not forget that he is still the lesser evil. Therefore, he needs our support.
Fortunately, here in Germany two and a half parties (out of five) support same-sex marriage. Four of the five parties support full adoption rights. So, when I go to the polls, I don’t have to make a compromise.
ronbo
We can do better than Obama. Fortunately today in America, if you were to swing a dead cat into a crowd, you are statistically likely to hit someone who is stronger on gay equality than Obama. He is a bought-and-paid-for politician. We spend the time, effort and money; but, he is not ours. His actions make that clear.
And yes, there are worse scenarios. But if your car breaks down on the highway, do you remain seated hoping for it to work saying “there are worse cars on the road.”? No, you get out. You tinker. You call a tow truck. You take action. Period. We have the power and can make necessary change. Stop enabling the single-party system of Democrats/Republicans. They are already on record for whom they support: money.
It would NOT be worse with Republicans. At least there would be opposition to THEM denying us our God-given rights. Obama is a false-flag president designed to muffle us while the single-party enacts policy of, by and for the wealthy.
SteveC
I will be voting for the Green candidate probably.
I am not voting for ANY candidate that does not support full equality.
The Dems know that many gay people feel they have no choice except to vote Dem.
Rubbish – the Dems are just as much in the pockets of big business as the Republic**ts are.
Voting for the lesser of 2 evils no longer works for me.
Court cases and civil unrest are a better way of gaining equality than relying on the Dems – whose leader Barack Obama still believes that we are 2nd class citizens, undeserving of equality.
F*** you Obama. You’re better than the Republic**ts but you are moronic bigot for believing that gay people are undesrving of our civil rights.
greenluv1322
@ronbo: Really… it would NOT be worse with Republicans? Did you forget the political climate from the 8 years of Bush. The Republican administration was constantly demonizing and marginalizing us.
You are delusional if you think that ANY Republican president would do anything short of deporting us…They are busy trying to undo what was accomplished. And I am an American citizen but the Republicans would jump at the chance to send us, LGBTs, to a “Kill the gays” country!
Aiden
@christopher di spirito: Uh, yeah, that’s pretty fucking scary. Only an idiot would support her.
ronbo
@greenluv1322: At least we were roiled-up and activism and organization. With Obama, we have been lulled into thinking things are “all right”. Obama bailed on eliminating DADT – it was Pelosi and Reid who took charge and passed the legislation – over his objections. Obama bailed on DADT – we should thank Pelois and Reid.
So yes, the answer is it’s better to have a known enemy creating activists and action, than an false-flag friend who will work against you behind the scenes. Would you prefer to be stabbed in the back (where you can’t see them coming) or a frontal assault where you can take evasive action?
Eu tu, Brutus? Our “fierce” President hasn’t even supported legal civil marriage. It’s time WE move forward with our rights and not beg the single-party of Dems/Repubs. The Left/Right spectrum is a tool used to keep us down. They may say different words, but they both take the same actions.
Spike
Can’t wait till all the perfectly PC gay’s heads explode when their choice in 2012 is between Obama and Romney . . . yea, like you are going to see gay rights go anywhere with a Mormon in the White House!
Queer Supremacist
Left and Right are outdated distinctions. The real distinctions are between freedom and control. Both parties and, seemingly, 90% of the trolls on this site, want control.
You’re just arguing about the brand of the knife that’s going to stab you in the back.
Eric
You people think you could do better than Obama? The man who willing to forgo a fight against tax cuts for the wealthy to repeal DADT? I mean, what in the HELL is wrong with you people.
What more can you friggin ask? You claim he opposes gay marriage, and yet it’s his administration opting not to enforce DOMA. So what the hell.
At the end of the day, actions SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. Obama’s actions has spoken louder than anything he said during the campaign *because* he followed through.
No way in hell I’d risk having a Republican take the white house in 2012. Those nutcase lunatic socially backward conservatives. No way in hell.
Obama’s got my vote all the way. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be voting for this man as well. It’s sad, but apparently what’s going on in conservative states like Tennessee isn’t enough of a wake-up call for some people.
Eric
@SteveC:
Might I add, Steve C, you are an utter fool.
In every sense of the word.
tjr101
@SteveC: Republicans fund the green party to split the vote!
Matt_miami
@greenluv1322: At least Bush more than doubled HIV/aids research during his presidency.
http://www.lcrga.com/news/Bush-Increases-AIDS-Funding/200202051737.shtml
The only Obama cut in his 2009 budget was HIV/Aids research.
http://www.healthgap.org/press/obamafy10budget.htm
Obama also passed the 2009 stimulus bill. Of the $10 billion that went to the NIAID (that’s the agency that does the most AIDS research) less than $1 billion could be used for AIDS research. As long as that research could be finished within the 2 years of the stimilus plan. No money could be used for long term clinical trials of new drugs. So how much was actually used for HIV/AIDS research. the NIAID has not released this information. But $800,000 was spent to teach African men how to wash their dicks after sex. Good job wasting more money stimulating useless jobs in foreign countries.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/
“They created a National HIV/AIDS strategy and increased funding for HIV services and research. Okay, yes, we’ll give them that one too.” I think the author of this tread should do his research before conceding this point to obama.
Matt_miami
G. Bush enacted the Presidential Emergancy Plan for Aids Relief(PEPFAR) in 2003.
2004 it had a a total budget of $2.3 billion. 2009 budget, last signed by Bush, PEPFAR’s budget grew to $6.68 billion.
Under obama in 2010 PEPFAR’s budget grew only $.18 billion.
http://www.pepfar.gov/press/80064.htm
It still looks like Bush was much better on HIV/AIDS than obama.