Vice President Biden on Thursday night acknowledged that he was aware of the “controversies . . . swirling around the speed — or lack thereof — that we’re moving on issues that are of great importance to you and, quite frankly, to me and to the President and to millions of Americans.”
To get that acknowledgment in the first six months of an Administration is good news. It shows that the voices that have been raised — from private conversations with White House staffers to the very public statements of protest at the DNC event to the loud, unending voices on the blogs — have been heard. They should not stop. But, we also must realize that acknowledgment is a step forward.
Openly gay Reps. Frank, Baldwin and Polis
The second step, access, is the direct communication that is needed after acknowledging criticism — and that also is happening. People did speak at the DNC event with people who can make things happen about the importance of the Administration moving on LGBT issues. More than a hundred people will be meeting at the White House this coming week. Having talked with several people planning on attending, I am confident that President Obama and the First Lady will be hearing legitimate criticisms of the Administration and advice on moving forward on Monday. Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team met with Chairman Barney Frank and Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis, the three openly gay members of Congress, this past week. Frank came out of the meeting convinced that their access to the Speaker helped put a plan in place to move on our issues.
The third step, of course, is action. And, as for that, we do need to keep pushing. We need to keep our voices raised — from the professional lobbying of HRC and others to letters and phone calls directed at members of Congress to radio shows and blogging that inform and educate people about what’s happening — to ensure that action happens. We do also (and I have no doubt this will happen regardless of whether I write about it) need to let our leaders know that there are consequences to inaction. But we need both.
Michelle and then-Senator Barack Obama, on June 3, 2008.
The voices raised over the past two weeks have, I believe, led to quick movement on steps one and two. Now, we must continue to raise our voices to ensure that President Obama, Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi and all of the Administration and Congress take the actions needed on hate crimes; Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; ENDA; and federal health benefits. We need to continue to take steps to educate on marriage equality so that Congress will beat the courts to the punch by repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.
The changed tone on LGBT issues in the past two weeks is a good sign. And, rather than assuming the worst and continuing with unabated criticism, I am taking the movement of the past two weeks as a sign that the Administration wants to do the right thing but, honestly, got distracted and did not give our issues the priority they deserve.
Now, let’s take the changed tone and work to make sure this Administration actually is “change” we can believe in.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
I agree with everything in this post, but let’s not forget that everything the administration is doing affects the LGBT community. If you’ve lost you job, your house, your health insurance, then the things the administration is doing has an impact on you.
In the last 6 months my partner lost his job and I’ve taken two pay cuts just to keep mine. We take home about 1/3 of what we made last November. If we were married it would be a tremendous help for us to keep our lives stable. But my partner was able to keep his health care benefits through his employer because of the stimulus package. He has to pay 35% but before the stimulus package he would have had to pay 100%. The unemployment benefits have been extended because there just aren’t any jobs. These things affect the LGBT community. It is affecting us right now.
That said, we need to stay focused on where we are going. And remember that it’s not just up to Obama to change laws; it’s for all of us to change minds. Every time a SC governor trumpets “family values” at our expense only to fly to Argentina on the tax payers dime to have sex with a woman who is not his wife, remind your closed minded friends that they are preserving marriage for the philanderers and denying it to loving couples. When they complain that Obama wants to tax their health care benefits in order to cover everyone in the country, remind them that you have to pay tax on your domestic partners health care benefits already. Explain that if you were straight and married your spouse’s health care wouldn’t be taxed as income but as domestic partners it is. It’s just one of those little things that makes marriage and domestic partners different. When they say that gays should not be allowed to serve in the military, agree with them. Then, thank them for keeping our community safe from having to die in foreign wars. Assure them that we appreciate the sacrifices of the straight community and that if we could we’d sacrifice too, right after the circuit party. They may think that’s not fair and want correct it.
We don’t exist in a vacuum. We are part of the larger community. EVERYTHING that Obama has done is for the larger community and by extension that means us. The fact that people are running around claiming Obama has forgotten about us and done nothing for us plays into the hands of those who claim we want special rights. Obama has been in office for 6 months. Have we already forgotten what happened when Clinton came in making changes without a consensus? We got DOMA and DADT. If Clinton had done nothing we would have been better off. Don’t f*@# this up. We are closer then we’ve ever been. We have our strongest ally ever in the white house. Don’t let him forget us, but don’t make him wish he could.
I totally agree.
Also we should watch our tone in the movement. So far, I feel, we have been myopic about most of this. In order to maintain our integrity and allies, we need to calm down and work with them.