Good news and bad news today on the Obama/LGBT front. The bad news is that Obama will be having Pastor Rick Warren, an ardent supporter of Prop 8, give the invocation at his inauguration. This is troubling, to say the least, especially in light of the issues during the primary campaign in South Carolina.
The good news is that Obama's pick for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, backed a proposal for a high school for LGBT & other bullied youths in Chicago as the city's CEO of Public Schools. Having such a man in charge of the Department of Education will be a huge shift over the current Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, who was no sooner in office than she was attacking a PBS animated show that depicted lesbian characters, claiming that most parents wouldn't want their children 'exposed to such lifestyles'.
It's disappointing that the same President-elect who would pick officials like Duncan and Nancy Sutley to serve under him would be open to someone like Warren playing a role in his inauguration.
I'm not excusing Obama in any way for his inclusion of Warren, but I will say that if given the option between a President who lets a homophobe speak at his inauguration yet chooses pro-LGBT Government officials or a President who has a gay friendly inauguration but appoints anti-gay officials, I'd certainly choose the former.
Still, there are many who continue to worry about the President-elect's true stance on gay issues, and Warren's inclusion doesn't help the matter any.
No comments:
Post a Comment