« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »
06/01/2009
Barack, paper, fissures: Does this document allay concerns?
It's official: Pride Month can again. In a welcome new document, the President says so:
Great. We mean it: An excellent move from a friendly president.
Now we need Barack Obama, constitutional scholar, to actually mean it when he says the "full spectrum of of equal rights" by bumping up his "separate/equal" civil unions stance to true marital freedom. On issues like DOMA and DADT, we'd like to hear reassurance that we are still very much a priority. On HIV/AIDS, we still have that travel and immigration ban with which to contend. And in terms of that "promise of equality for all," it'd be nice to hear more of a roadmap of how we will work together to get over the remaining obstacles in our way, so that this concept will be a no-brainer for future generations of Pride celebrants.
So yea: Happy pride month to you too, Mr. President. We just hope that this is the beginning of a time when your administration will show us more that's in keeping with the spirit of Stonewall, and less that resembles, well -- a stone wall.
Your thoughts
Wow! A proclamation I'll just use that to shield the punches when somebody is beating me up, or maybe Dan Choi will use this as a reason why he can't be discharged, better yet when I'll use this in place of my marriage license.
Posted by: Jeff Chang | Jun 1, 2009 9:09:11 PM
Still pretty shallow from a guy that feels "separate but equal" is just fine.
Posted by: Courtney | Jun 2, 2009 3:08:13 AM
And now that he signed a useless piece of paper he can go back to completely ignoring our attempts at equality.
Posted by: Penguinsaur | Jun 2, 2009 7:45:58 AM
I honestly found this unexpected but gratifying to hear. I think after not mentioning any LGBT issues in his recent CA visit, this allays many concerns that LGBT issues have fallen off the agenda.
That said, I do hear a note of "I'll get to it when I get to it," which I'm also pretty OK with. Seeing as how we have things like North Korea and the economy around, my priority list is:
1. Don't get bombed
2. Have a job
3. Marry my partner
So if 3 doesn't occur for a bit, and in that time 1 and 2 are solved, I think I'll be OK with that.
Posted by: UK Chris | Jun 2, 2009 7:57:52 AM
For me this is, as a standalone document, a very welcome, very nice development. He wasn't going to change his marriage position in this kind of document. He doesn't have the power to give us most of our other sought-after gains via this document. So for the gesture by itself, I thank the administration for a somewhat historic announcement.
But that doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't say "Thanks, but..." There's a big difference between (a) bitching for the sake of bitching and (b) saying to the administration: "Great, we both seem largely on the same page. Now here are the points of contention that are raising red flags with us, and here's what we need to do to get to a collective happy place."
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jun 2, 2009 8:26:22 AM
Certainly not something the previous administration would have done. Jeremy, you have the right view of this, ""Great, we both seem largely on the same page. Now here are the points of contention that are raising red flags with us, and here's what we need to do to get to a collective happy place.""
Posted by: Bob Miller | Jun 2, 2009 12:11:16 PM
....it is fine that a sitting President did a Pride Month Problamation (those on the front longer..did Clinton do any?)
...But Obama is a BERTHA.... and if you want/need to know what that is, here is the
definitives link as it relates to gays.
365gay.com/blog/daigle-obama-and-the-theory-of-berthas/
Posted by: LOrion | Jun 2, 2009 2:19:37 PM
"Wow! A proclamation I'll just use that to shield the punches when somebody is beating me up, or maybe Dan Choi will use this as a reason why he can't be discharged, better yet when I'll use this in place of my marriage license."
Beautifully worded.
Annoying president is annoying. Maybe I'm a masochist, but on some level, I think I may have preferred Bush's full frontal disparaging. In terms of foreign policy, he's been arguably more useless, so scratch not getting bombed from things to potentially do in the future.
Well at least we'll all be employed by the WPA before his reign comes to an end.
/gloom
Posted by: Chris | Jun 3, 2009 12:47:01 AM
Talk to us
*Why are my comments not appearing? See the G-A-Y Comments Policy
