What a weekend. Not that I’d know, since (contrary to what I said previously) I was unable to make it to the National Equality March yesterday. But I was following it every step of the way, and wow, what a turnout. What a message that we as a community sent to the nation – that we demand full equality, economic recession or not, health care debate or not, two wars or not, and we demand it now. Barney Frank be damned.
What the March really showed – not just to the nation, but to us as LGBT people – is that we have a voice, and that if we want our rights, we’ll have to use that voice, and we’ll have to yell and scream until Washington just can’t stand it anymore. We can’t rely on unconcerned politicians to get things done on their own. The level of tolerance in this country has undoubtedly never been higher, but the need for grassroots LGBT activism has never been greater. The Democrats in charge of our legislative and executive branches just don’t care enough about these issues – about DADT, about DOMA, about ENDA – to tackle them without some severe prodding. They like gay votes and they like gay money, but that’s during the election. Once they’re in office, they suddenly have other priorities.
Take President Obama. I didn’t make it to the March, but I did make a point to watch his highly-publicized speech to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on Saturday evening. And let me tell you, it was a magnificent speech, filled with a fire and a passion that we’ve come to expect from President Obama’s teleprompter. It gave me goosebumps and even brought a tear to my eye at one point. But when I took the time to dissect the speech, I realized that it was really nothing more than rosy rhetoric carefully constructed to rouse emotion in LGBT people yet not make any commitments. And indeed, President Obama’s record on LGBT issues has been paltry at best. He extended many benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees; he declared “LGBT Pride Month”; he is in the process of lifting the ban on HIV-AIDS victims entering the United States. In the meantime, soldiers continue to be discharged as a result of DADT while the President refuses to use an executive order to halt the discrimination or put his full weight behind legislative repeal. The Obama Justice Department continues to defend DOMA, the repeal of which still doesn’t have sufficient momentum. President Obama continues to believe that marriage is only between one man and one woman.
Indeed, the President carefully avoided the word “marriage.” He talked about equality, about relationships, but not about marriage. He didn’t bother to mention the bitter fight taking place in Maine that could potentially illegalize same-sex marriages almost a year after they were legalized by the legislature. Nor did he mention the attempt by bigots in the state of Washington to overturn the state’s domestic partnership law. This is because, at his core, President Obama does not support full LGBT equality. He supports enough LGBT equality to make those in attendance at the HRC dinner jump to their feet and deliver thunderous applause and cheers and whoops and hollers. And they applauded even as our President stood at the podium and told us that there were other major issues – the economy, health care reform – that were on the table and that they, too, affect LGBT people. They applauded even as we were told (in so many words) to stop expecting it all at once and to accept lukewarm incrementalism.
Don’t get me wrong. President Obama is the strongest LGBT advocate we’ve ever had in the White House, and that makes a difference. The hate crimes bill will probably be passed and sent to his desk very soon, and he will sign it. But this isn’t happening just because President Obama or any other politician pushed for it. It’s happening because of what we saw in Washington yesterday – fierce LGBT activism. And we can’t give up. We can’t compromise. We can’t put our futures into the hands of politicians who really, when it comes right down to it, don’t give a rat’s ass about us. President Obama said it best when he encouraged the LGBT community to keep pushing him. That’s what he needs. That’s what all the Democrats need. More pushing. More marching.
I have high hopes for the future. And not thanks to Barack “Fierce Advocate” Obama.
The blogger, Kristofer Paul, can be reached at bottomleftpolitics@yahoo.com.
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