Obama upholds DOMA, does nothing about DADT.
Gay groups are going crazy. Aren’t you?
©2009 Nightcharm
June 13, 2009
23 Responses to 'The Last Word'
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Obama upholds DOMA, does nothing about DADT.
Gay groups are going crazy. Aren’t you?
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A really sad (but very revealing day). What a fuckwad.
Anyone recall this?
Spend some time perusing the “comments” section from the LA TIMES piece that nightcharm links to in this post (above the picture).
The mindset of some of these freaks is what’s unfuckingbelievable…try this one on for size, posted by drivelphobe:
“Perez Hilton is a perfect example of why society does, and will always, legal or not, detest homosexuals and their egregious, perverted outlook on life, their me-first attitude and their obscene, public displays of same gender activities. It is time to go back in the closet.
This ridiculous queer marriage business offends the world. Good for Smokey O. Back up the right to find homosexuality abhorrent. After all, heterosexuals are born that way and it’s not a matter of choice. We just feel like vomiting when exposed to queers and their antics. lol”
Even a one year-old baby would scrunch up their face and ask “what’s this bullshit?” after Odubya dropped this bomb on our community today.
I lay the blame for this on the Democrats in the Senate, who have repeatedly refused to take up progressive issues that could be considered controversial. The senate is notoriously fickle, and key Democratic moderates have proved to be contrary to the President on his most ambitious and progressive policies. First they abandoned Obama on the assault weapons ban, then one by one they questioned cap and trade. Now they’re being sicks-in-the-mud on healthcare reform. When you have 59 seats in the Senate but have 10-15 who aren’t willing to do anything aggressive, you may as well have 49 seats.
I know this is cynical. But the administration probably tallied up all the support they’d get repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, in the Senate and realized they wouldn’t have the votes. It’s tough to convince a Democratic senator to vote against DOMA if he or she voted for it in the 1990s when Bill Clinton signed the law, and they were worried about their political futures. It’s cynical, but the White House is probably taking the option off the table knowing that a loss would spend more political capital than a victory.
This is NOT about winning over moderates and Republicans, its completely about the White House’s attempt to maintain political leadership and control over the Democratic party, without letting any Democratic senators defect.
Nor is this a defense of the Obama administration, it’s just a political analysis of the reasons he isn’t doing anything for gay rights right now.
The key here is to write your senator. If you live in a small non-New England state with a Democratic senator, you are also most likely from one of the states where your Senator has showed signs of not helping.
So voters in Nevada, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Nebraska, North Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Missouri, WRITE YOUR DEMOCRATIC SENATOR.
Obama needs all the political capital he can get for healthcare reform, which is his first prioriy. We need to convince him that the political capital the LGBT community brings to the table is more important to him than what Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich would say. We’re already on his side – but slipping away. They were always against him and always will be.
Tell your political leaders what is at stake. Under which circumstances will you remain supportive, and under which circumstances will you be lost?
Wow. Just imagine if the Federal Government had left desegregation up to the states. You think he’d be where he is now? And this is coming from someone who should and does know better.
“Wow. Just imagine if the Federal Government had left desegregation up to the states. You think he’d be where he is now? And this is coming from someone who should and does know better.”
The federal government DID leave desegregation up to the states for 90 years after the civil war, dude.
It left SLAVERY up to the states for the first 90 years and segregation up to the states for the second.
And since Obama was from Hawaii and Illinois, nothing would have happened.
I’m absolutely on board with your point, dude – that this White House statement is bullshit – but the president’s Blackness has nothing to do with it. It would STILL be bullshit if he was the whitest, most aryan thing you ever saw. It would be bullshit if he were the creature from the Black Lagoon. Nothing to do with him being black.
SHOCKING! IT TURNS OUT BARRY, AS OPPOSED TO OTHER POLITICIANS, IS INTERESTED IN WINNING ELECTIONS! WHO KNEW? WHAT A SURPRISE! THIS WILL ALL END UP IN THE SUPREME COURT, WHERE IT BELONGS.
The more I follow this, the more disheartened I become.
Dan Savage from Slog:
Folks who read the DOMA brief the Obama administration filed in California this morning…said that it read like it was written by the Bush administration. It went way beyond the half-hearted perforce defense of DOMA that folks were braced for. It was breathtakingly bigoted, like something written by a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s madrassa, Liberty University. Well guess what? It was written by the Bush administration…W Scott Simpson, a Bush administration holdover..a Mormon.
Do you think the Obama administration is letting Bush holdovers work on healthcare reform? Do you think they’re letting Bush holdovers work on Iraq policy? Do you think they’re letting Bush holdovers work on economic policy? Do you think they’re letting Bush holdovers manage Sotomayor’s confirmation process? Of course not. Because all of those things matter to the Obama administration. They give a shit… They don’t give a shit about gay rights—they don’t give a shit about gay soldiers being hounded out of the military or gay spouses being turned away from their partners’ sickbeds or binational gay couples facing deportation or the HIV travel ban or gay parents or anything else that touches our lives.
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” — MLK, Jr.
And what did you expect?
He is an ordinary politician.
Blah, blah, blah.
I guess that you, Americans, just like us, citizens of the world, are disappointed with the man.
Even Senator Edward Moore Kennedy would have done better.
I rather expected the Obama administration would trade off the gay rights issue for some of the higher-profile items on the agenda. He has big plans, plans that can’t fail, and whether we like it or not the GLBT community is a political liability.
But just because I understand it doesn’t mean I appreciate it. The administration could have just kept mum on the issue, but to come out swinging on behalf of DOMA and DADT… it hurts.
And the thing is, the Dems know they can throw us under the bus because, hell, where else are we going to go?
Are you honestly surprised. The coda for all polititions is:
The best voter is the one in front of you.
The best thing to say is whatever will make him vote for you.
Or as my mom used to say “that politition is lying, his lips are moving.”
It was too much to HOPE for.
“The federal government DID leave desegregation up to the states for 90 years after the civil war, dude.”
But, dude (seriously?), it did ultimately come to its senses, and since in my mind the purpose of government is to instrument widespread necessary social changes, there is a definite cowardice to his stance, especially given the obvious precedent that wasn’t there all those years ago.
And sorry, but there is something very queasy about a minority figure losing his spine when it comes to social injustice, particularly when his opponents have made so much out of racial and ethnic difference being barometers for determining a “real” American.
Every modern politician is only in the game for themselves and “their” appointed agenda. We should not be surprised by this or even take it personally. Politics is a business traded on influence. Our community does not have influence. we have a social profile. We’re talked about, but not always positively. That does not gain real influence.
The gays can have their Civil Unions, but that doesn’t mean they can’t tell people they are married. It’s the same thing, but by another name. Wanting so desperately to get the okay for gays to be “married” is a waste of time. It’s not going to change how you feel about your partner. I still don’t understand why they gays want to be part of a failed traditional heterosexual tradition. Is it so they can contribute to that failure? Are the gays expecting to be able to divorce as well? What is wrong with having Civil Unions that provide all the rights and protections of traditional marriages? In order for there to be a marriage, there needs to be a husband and a wife. If there’s two husbands, then it’s not a marriage. If there are two wives, then it’s not a marriage. That’s why the gays should take advantage of Civil Unions. They would already be bound together in wedlock if they did. Why must it be called “marriage”? We are different than straight people. If the gays wanted to marry, they should have been born straight.
“If the gays wanted to marry, they should have been born straight.”
Oh, damn, you’re right – so seeing as I do want to be married, guess it was MY MISTAKE being born gay; guess I should go back and try to correct the record, eh?
Isn’t that what straight people could say to the gays? We want to say we are born the way we are, but we also want the privilege in participating in a heterosexual matrimonial institution. It wasn’t your fault you were born gay. You just were. It was the luck of the draw. The roll of the dice. Why take it personal? You can still have a Civil Union. Go for it. Just pretend you’re getting married. Gays are known to have creative imaginations. When you refer to it just say you’re married if you want to. It’s the same thing. I would suppose your love and relationship wouldn’t be affected. At least it shouldn’t and you still would have all the benefits, protections and legal recognition.
“…but we also want the privilege in participating in a heterosexual matrimonial institution.”
I don’t think civil unions do offer the same benefits, and I would argue that most gay people are far less concerned about dropping twenty grand on a fairytale wedding than they are about the practicalities of joint tax returns, hospital visitation, insurance, etc. As for marriage being a privilege, how can it be when heterosexuals can do it and fail at it as many times as they want even if they abuse and abandon their spouses? Privilege implies to me that there’s some sort of excellence that results in earning access to the “institution” (hate that word”. I’m just not seeing that.
Do you really believe Obama wanted to give Gays their Civil Rights? All he wanted was your vote so he promised the moon. All he’s interested in now is to be king of the United States. Now, he’s talking about zoning the Oceans. Next he’ll part the Ocean and walk on dry land to Europe. The man is on an ego trip.
Pardon my armchair psychoanalysis, but you seem to have some internalized homophobia rearing its ugly head in your comments, geepers. Your repeated use of the term “they” to describe a group to which you apparently belong seems duplicitous at best, self-loathing at worst. You might want to look into that.
You know…
It’s not that I think this is okay. But gay marriage (gay rights, for that matter) is a divisive issue, and if he expends all his political capital on this he won’t be able to get anything else accomplished, like health care, which affects ALL Americans. Moreover, the health care issue is more important even to gays (though the more vocal parts of the gay community may disagree with me). You can live a lot better not being able to marry than you can unable to receive medications or physical therapy or treatment you need to have a functional existence.
It’s pretty unbelievable this is even being discussed, but unfortunately there’s a hierarchy of needs, and unlike say, regulating smoking, this is not something that can be done simultaneous to health care reform. I’m not even sure the health care reform will happen.
I’m honestly much more bothered by the continued existence of Bagram and the practice of sending US terror suspects overseas to be tortured (both MUCH more severe human rights violations than marriage denial), which I can only partially tell myself is the result of conversation of political capital.