LGBT people are the one minority group that includes people of all races and nationalities, that truly stretches to every culture and corner of the world, and I think it is up to all of us to make sure that we carry the fight for equality forward not just in our own cities but worldwide.
It is so incredibly easily, living in a country like the United States, to take for granted the victories of the past forty years since the Stonewall riots kicked the gay rights movement into high gear. We still have a long way to go, of course, but we've already come so far and that is entirely due to the people who stood up and fought back against harsh authority, who refused to continue to be third class citizens in their own country. In other words, men & women exactly like those in Russia who faced the certainty of arrest this weekend but still showed up to add their voices to the call for Equality.
On the topic of LGBT Rights in the United States, our new President continues to be an overwhelming disappointment. One of Barack Obama's campaign promises, if you'll recall, was to overturn DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act.
Today, Terry Eleveld, a reporter from The Advocate, asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs what the President's timeline for the repeal was. Gibbs shrugged the question off with a "I don't know the answer to that." In other words, this is another LGBT related campaign promise that is in no way a priority for the Administration.
Congressman John Conyers, meanwhile, is taking the President to task for becoming 'so conservative' since taking office and specifically notes that it's time to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy:
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, says it is time to repeal the 16-year-old ban on openly gay service members in the U.S. military. The controversial policy has become an issue for the White House since President Obama took office in January. During the 2008 campaign, Obama had promised to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but recently, the president has appeared to be backing off that statement.
“Why is he becoming so conservative now that he’s got the job?” Conyers asked during an interview with Michigan Messenger at a gathering of progressive activists on Saturday. “I think he is getting a lot of pressure put on him from the right, from conservatives. And he is trying to prove to the Republicans that he is bipartisan.”
This is all pretty disappointing, but it's not like there weren't warning signs that Obama wasn't going to be strongly supportive of LGBT rights. I took a 'wait and see' attitude, knowing that if nothing else, he'd be a huge improvement over his predecessor and better than his opponent, John McCain, who has supported the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and recently stated that he still thinks it's working.
We have to remember, though, that LGBT people have never had anything handed to us in terms of equal rights. We've had to fight every step of the way and force the political establishment to come around. It's becoming quite clear that Obama isn't naturally inclined to be supportive of equality, but we have a far better chance of getting him to come around through political pressure and social activism than we ever did with Bush or would have had with McCain.
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