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Where does Obama stand on gay rights?

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  • Where does Obama stand on gay rights?

    Cause it doesn't look to me that he's doing anything to support them

    During the presidential primaries, then-candidate Obama promoted himself as the biggest defender of gay rights since Harvey Milk. He would be a "fierce advocate" for our rights, he promised, and he even out-gayed Hillary Clinton: telling gay and lesbian voters that while she was for a partial repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he'd get rid of the whole damn thing.
    On taking office, Obama immediately announced that he was doing away with the Clinton-era concept of special assistants who served as liaisons to various communities like gays and Latinos. He then went ahead and appointed special liaisons to some of those communities anyway, but never to the gays. Around the same time, the White House Web site, once detailing half a page of presidential promises to the gay community, overnight saw those pledges shortened to three simple sentences. Gone were five of the eight previous commitments, including the promises to repeal both Don't Ask Don't Tell and DOMA. Adding to a growing sense of angst, senior White House officials kept telling the media that they weren't sure when, if ever, the president would follow through on his promises to the gay community. Then there were the Cabinet appointees. Three Latino nominees but nary a gay in sight. And finally, last week our president had his Department of Justice file a brief in defense of DOMA, a law he had once called "abhorrent." In that brief, filed on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia (which outlawed bans on interracial marriage), our own interracial Harvey Milk, not lacking a sense of historical irony, compared our love to incest and pedophilia.
    Tonight, President Fierce will try to make amends by signing either a memorandum, a directive or an executive order, directing some federal agencies, but not others, to provide some benefits, but not others, to some gay federal employees, but not others, at some undisclosed time in the future. (And the benefits may reportedly go away when Obama leaves office.)

    First problem, federal agencies already have the right to provide these benefits to gay employees -- and several, including at least one DOD agency, do. Second problem, the administration can’t tell us exactly which benefits they’re talking about and for which employees. That’s because this was all hastily thrown together after the incestuous and pedophilic gays nearly brought down a Democratic National Committee gay pride fundraiser scheduled for next week. A gay blogger got hold of the event’s guest list and published it, and once D.C.’s gay paper, the Washington Blade, announced that it would be staking out the entrance to the event with camera and video, the $1,000 a head attendees started dropping like flies.
    "I read a book twice as fast as anybody else. First, I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and read toward whatever end I like best." - Gracie Allen

  • #2
    Really how many gay rights threads do we need?

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    • #3
      I guess he stands on their throat.
      Graffiti in a public toilet
      Do not require skill or wit
      Among the **** we all are poets
      Among the poets we are ****.

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      • #4
        Tonight, President Fierce will try to make amends by signing either a memorandum, a directive or an executive order, directing some federal agencies, but not others, to provide some benefits, but not others, to some gay federal employees, but not others, at some undisclosed time in the future. (And the benefits may reportedly go away when Obama leaves office.)
        Obama is right once again, siding with the moderates, not giving in to greedy gays.
        Blah

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        • #5
          Gays got snookered. Obama said the right thing to get their votes and now he really isn't going to do much for them because he just doesn't care.
          “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
          - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

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          • #6
            Perhaps comparing gays not being able to marry to 1940s era blacks is a bad idea,.

            JM
            Jon Miller-
            I AM.CANADIAN
            GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui View Post
              Gays got snookered. Obama said the right thing to get their votes and now he really isn't going to do much for them because he just doesn't care.
              You're much more pessimistic than I, and other gays are.

              He has extended some of the same benefits to gay couples where one of the partners is a federal government employee.
              He has publicly announced his recognition of June as Gay Pride month.
              He is not opposed to repealing DOMA and "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" - for pragmatic and political reasons, it's only a question of when he will do these things.
              He also has at least a couple of high office holders who happen to be gay, within his administration.

              I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple other things that Obama has done to show his support for gays and lesbians - even if at same time, we have mixed feelings about how quickly he should get these things done.
              A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Jon Miller View Post
                Perhaps comparing gays not being able to marry to 1940s era blacks is a bad idea,.

                JM
                Nah, there are black people who see the parallel between civil rights for blacks and civil rights for gays.
                A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by MrFun View Post
                  You're much more pessimistic than I, and other gays are.
                  You don't speak for all "gays" . There are plenty of groups which are just as pessimistic as I am. Add in his joke of an 'extend federal benefits' and change doesn't seem to be all that much.

                  You also forget about his Justice Department's full spirited defense of DOMA in federal court, arguing in briefs, that it is akin to restrictions on incest.

                  He is not opposed to repealing DOMA and "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" - for pragmatic and political reasons, it's only a question of when he will do these things.
                  You'd think when his political capital is strongest is when he should be able to get this through, and with Congress the way it is, it'd likely get done in a flash. When he gets bogged down in inheriting this economy (right now it's still considered Bush's mess) and Afghanistan, then he'll really have no time for doing away with DOMA and don't ask, don't tell.
                  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                  - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Yes, I was really upset with Justice Department's terrible statement on DOMA.

                    And of course I do not speak for all gays. I read news in Washington Blade where different opinions among gays and lesbians are presented all the time.
                    A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

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                    • #11
                      Washington Blade

                      Gay City News
                      KH FOR OWNER!
                      ASHER FOR CEO!!
                      GUYNEMER FOR OT MOD!!!

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui View Post
                        Gays got snookered. Obama said the right thing to get their votes and now he really isn't going to do much for them because he just doesn't care.
                        Basically.
                        Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Drake Tungsten View Post
                          Washington Blade

                          Gay City News
                          How would a flaming hetero like yourself know anything about gay news sources to comment on them?
                          A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

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                          • #14
                            I find it shocking that a black man would be unsympathetic to the gay agenda.

                            How would a flaming hetero like yourself know anything about gay news sources to comment on them?


                            I used to pick up the Gay City News at 96th and Columbus all the time. It's a good paper, unlike the Washington Blade.
                            KH FOR OWNER!
                            ASHER FOR CEO!!
                            GUYNEMER FOR OT MOD!!!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by MrFun View Post
                              You're much more pessimistic than I, and other gays are.
                              Many of the gays I know have become skeptical of Obama.

                              He has extended some of the same benefits to gay couples where one of the partners is a federal government employee.
                              Except, of course, for health benefits or social security. Or if you're in the military. And of course, some of this already existed. And they'll expire when he leaves office.

                              He has publicly announced his recognition of June as Gay Pride month.
                              He also declared June "Great Outdoors Month". Woop.

                              He is not opposed to repealing DOMA
                              But stands by a brief comparing gay marriage to incest and pedophilia. Or even make a speech on the issue after several states legalized gay marriage.

                              and "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue"
                              Except that he won't do anything even though it's well in his power to issue an executive order which would put a moratorium on it.

                              - for pragmatic and political reasons, it's only a question of when he will do these things.
                              Rrrright...

                              If experience has shown us anything, he'll only do those things if he's threatened in the purse with a lack of donations. And even then we'd have to set our sights much lower and concentrate on working on the state level.
                              "I read a book twice as fast as anybody else. First, I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and read toward whatever end I like best." - Gracie Allen

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