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To our fellow liberals who are just finding this out - welcome to the fuzzy end of the Obama lollipop.
"What's particularly interesting about Dan's piece is how the concerns the gay community has with the White House could now just as easily come from the mouths of health care reform advocates."
Is so sad and so true. Just read Dan's post and am left with the feeling that finally I'm not alone. I really sense the number of us that know we have been abandoned by Obama is growing rapidly. Personally I won't even watch him on TV anymore - he's just vaporware anyway - just a spineless coward that believes in nothing and won't fight for anything. His presidency is imploding and all I can do is wish he were gone.
Everyday, there is another group of people who are alienated and another motivation for a systematic social revolution in this country. Really if you look at what is happening objectively, and compare it to documented pre-revolutionary eras, things don't look as safe as we seem to think they are.
I really hope for the sake of the country, that the Democrats get their act together and do what needs to be done. Please democrats, take a few years and put public before party, and put that lot before corporations in your list of priorities. We've taken note of your more stern stance lately. We approve. Continue moving in that direction.
Also, in a marketing sense he is what I want people to think of when they think of a gay family man with a child. I want him to be our new stereotype. Fuck, I just want to organize and get our equality. This man would just be the perfect ingredient in a national/international movement for progressive equality in general (not just gay) and promoter of justice.
Other than AmericaBlog and Dan Savage, I don't know who I can REALLY trust on the issues concerning my politicized sexuality. I'd also like to say thank you for posting gay issues again on the main board.
Edit: I've been thinking about this since I've posted it. Why not just pressure Savage to run for a federal office? Then I just came to the conclusion, for the first time in my life, that some people are just too good at what they do. Some people are too special to put into office. I actually think Barack Obama falls into that category as well. I like effective people on the outside... You can almost have more power outside our government than within it. Sad.
Oh, and thanks :-)
However - I've just been noticing that when an item is cross posted - the same post - it gets two separate comment threads. I understand how this is automatic, but could they be consolidated? It kinda gets confusing. The readership is pretty much the same... Could it be done?
We were ALL used.
And YES, thanks for putting this on the main blog.
What if Obama had come into the White House with 2 teenage daughters and one of them had come out to him as a lesbian. He would become such a passionate advocate for glbt civil rights it would make your head spin.
The passion he has for his kids and his wife...for his historic ascent as the first African-American President...for speaking before large crowds...for basketball and beers...for the Blue Cross Democrats and the warm embrace of Republicans...Hell, even the passion he allegedly has for health care reform, are the polar opposite of the total lack of concern he seems to show for the glbt community.
It is not personal for him. And, on a personal note, I feel he has betrayed me.
If I had to grade him from my perspective as both a gay man and an ardent Progressive, I would give him a D- on both counts.
The ONLY reason I would not give him an F is that I am holding out hope (very faint hope, actually) that he really is a master tactician and there is some greater plan in the works that we haven't been able to quite grasp yet.
But that is my optimistic side talking.
He has been, thus far, a failure.
Typically our biggest enemies have been closet cases on the right and in the Republican party.
Unfortunately, the reality is, with 2 groups that are allies on Progressive and Democratic matters, the Aftrican-American and Hispanic communities, homophobia is a big thing to overcome. While I am not so sure that they were responsible for Proposition 8, they certainly did not help matters, either.
I am not saying all blacks and latinos (and latinas) are homophobes, but there is a strong pushback to glbt civil rights with both constituencies, generally speaking.
The problem is essentially the churches in the African-American community, and some of the latin American countries are virulently homophobic. Much of the Caribbean nations come to mind, especially Jamaica. There is a machismo culture there that is very harsh on gay men, in particular.
Weston, 44, is one of an overwhelming number – 70 percent – of black voters in California who voted for Proposition 8 and helped secure its passage, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
African Americans, energized by Barack Obama's presidential bid, boosted their numbers at the polls this year to 10 percent of the state's electorate, up from 6 percent in 2004.
"The Obama people were thrilled to turn out high percentages of African Americans, but (Proposition 8) literally wouldn't have passed without those voters," said Gary Dietrich, president of Citizen Voice, a nonpartisan voter awareness organization.
Latinos were 18 percent of California's voters, and through sheer numbers also contributed to Proposition 8's success. But 53 percent of Latino voters supported the measure, a much lower percentage than black voters. Among white and Asian voters, 49 percent voted for the measure.
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/stor...
I agree with everything you say - but here's a thought. Gays (and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in general) are always given the "where else are they going to go" treatment when it comes to electoral politics. How about if for once the African-American and Latino communities were treated this way in the cause of granting full equality to ALL Americans? In light of the blatant and incessant racism which currently defines the GOP, I hardly think it would be much of a risk.
Wait...never mind.
Used for our money and fucked over????!!
Unpossible......or is it?
What the hell do you expect? A promise kept? Silly homo.
I can tell you....after working HARD for the election of a DEM controlled Gov. at the state level and even harder for Obama I finally came to the conclusion...the dont give a shit.
I was in the navy during the Clinton fiasco of DADT.
Over and over again..."got yer money, fuck off....(four years later) but we need yer money!
Maybe I'm jaded but GODDAMN IT when are we as a people going to hold them accountable?
FUCK!
NYT reports that the administration "appears" to be backing off the backroom sweetheart deal with Big Pharma because of criticism from Congressional Dems. That sounds a little encouraging, but then the article goes on to state that Big Pharma is "peace" with the status of the deal. And Linda Douglas is claiming there never really was a done deal - even though others in the administration repeatedly verified that it WAS earlier this week.
It's a little hard to get through the weeds on this one (for me, anyway - with not enough sleep OR caffeine) but it all sounds like a cover-your-ass story that only further diminishes whatever credibility Obama might have left (with others, not me - THAT well has run dry).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/us/08lobby.ht...
See the pattern?
I guess I was cynical before it was cool. And here's the even more bitter truth. I think we'd be getting even less if HRC had won and McCain? Oy.
By the way, Hillary gave the gay state department employees the same benefits Obama did except the week BEFORE.
Unless you mean Obama's cocktail party where he joked about us for thinking he is going to slow on gay equality?