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Why Is Obama Deleting His Gay Rights Support From the White House Homepage?

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Back when Barack Obama first took office, his tech wizards quickly revamped the WhiteHouse.gov website with some slick new features all while the new president was taking his oath of office. And perhaps more importantly, an easy-to-follow menu of where our new commander-in-chief stood on certain issues became available. Gay activists were particularly excited about the entire section devoted to LGBT rights on WhiteHouse.gov’s Civil Rights section, which took up nearly half the page. There was talk about his support for ENDA, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, supporting civil unions and repealing DOMA, beefing up the nationa’s HIV/AIDS strategy, and ensuring adoption rights for gays. “This is all in writing! On the President’s Web site!,” cheerfully reported Gay.com. Well, uh, all of that is now gone from Obama’s homepage. Still not asking yourselves what Obama has done for gays lately?

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The only remaining language specific to gays in the Civil Rights section is the paragraph on “Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Laws” and a mention of “strengthening” hate crimes legislation As AmericaBlog notes, the language about DOMA has changed, too: “[President Obama] supports changing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security…” Yes, repealing DADT is now all about “changing” it.

But didn’t things look different on January 21, when Obama took office? Yes, they did. Center For Inquiry:

The new website’s policy agenda contains a lengthy description of proposed civil rights initiatives to promote equal rights for the LGBT community. Many of these initiatives were staunchly opposed by George W. Bush’s conservative Christian base, including a bill to ban workplace discrimination, support for civil unions, opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the expansion of adoption rights. Noticeably absent from the new website are the pages formerly devoted to George Bush’s Faith Based Community Initiative, a program that drew fire from both religious and secular defenders of church-state separation.

Why the changes? Explains the White House in a statement: “As is the case with most websites, periodic changes are made to WhiteHouse.gov. Recently we overhauled the issues section to concisely reflect the President’s broad agenda, and will continue to update these pages. The President’s commitment on LGBT issues has not changed, and any suggestions to the contrary are false.”

Except: Those suggestions are not.

We’ve dutifully explained how Obama has done squat for the GLBT community since landing in the White House. His silence on Iraq’s gay murders. His non-existent deadline for repealing DADT. His 11th hour support for Congress passing hate crimes legislation.

And now, right on his website, Barack Obama has all but erased — literally — his support of gay rights. Just one example: The website’s explanation of where Obama stands on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Previously, it read:

Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell:

President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

Huh. Funny how things change.

But go ahead, keep supporting President Obama. We could find 250 things to commend him for in his 100 days. But now go ahead and excuse him for only being in office 100 days without helping the gay community — and know that he had enough time to update his website and strip away almost every promise he made to us during the campaign.

UPDATE: After a stream of phone calls and email messages into the White House asking what was going on, WhiteHouse.gov has been updated with Obama’s stance once again appearing. The White House media affairs office tells Queerty the site was undergoing an overhaul, and many sections were affected, including the Civil Rights page. The new Civil Rights page now includes more information, but it no longer as robust as the original version.

(Want to see what Obama’s Civil Rights page used to look like? Click to the next page)

On April 15, 2009, it looked like this (via Versonista):

CIVIL RIGHTS

“The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else’s laundry and cleaning somebody else’s kitchen — they didn’t brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs…. We have more work to do.”

— Barack Obama, Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007

President Barack Obama has spent much of his career fighting to strengthen civil rights as a civil rights attorney, community organizer, Illinois State Senator, U.S. Senator, and now as President. Whether promoting economic opportunity, working to improve our nation’s education and health system, or protecting the right to vote, President Obama has been a powerful advocate for our civil rights.

* Combat Employment Discrimination: President Obama and Vice President Biden will work to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that curtails racial minorities’ and women’s ability to challenge pay discrimination — on Jan. 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009, to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. they will also pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
* Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Section.
* End Deceptive Voting Practices: President Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voters who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote.
* End Racial Profiling: President Obama and Vice President Biden will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.
* Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support: President Obama and Vice President Biden will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama and Biden will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.
* Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: President Obama and Vice President Biden believe the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.
* Expand Use of Drug Courts: President Obama and Vice President Biden will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior.

Support for the LGBT Community

“While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.”

— Barack Obama, June 1, 2007

* Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. President Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, President Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
* Fight Workplace Discrimination: President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
* Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
* Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
* Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell: President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
* Expand Adoption Rights: President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
* Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, President Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma — too often tied to homophobia — that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.
* Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. President Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

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