Gay-rights leaders' enthusiasm for Obama subsides

[Truth Teller]

Source: AP

Gay-rights activists remain hopeful about the Obama presidency but are now more wary after what one called a "double punch to the gut" — the choice of a pastor they consider hostile for a prime inauguration role and dashed hopes for the first openly gay Cabinet member.

Enthusiasm among gays over Barack Obama's election has deflated rapidly in the days since his inaugural organizers announced that the invocation would be delivered by the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent pastor who backed a recent ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in his home state of California.

The Warren announcement coincided with the final round of Obama's Cabinet selections — confirming that gays on the short list for interior secretary and labor secretary would not get those posts.

...

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gRY9SuBE8oG14dq2N2N98WDVvU-wD958M4RG0

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. And in other news...

The sun will rise in the east tommorow, there is a chance of rain somewhere on the planet and.... This just in! The pope is still Roman Catholic!

:eyes:

[Mari333]

2. "I am a kinder, gentler asshole"nt

[wellst0nev0ter]

3. "Fuck The Gays, They Don't Vote For Us!"

But in this case, they do, which makes it even more perplexing his insensitivity to them.

[grantdevine]

9. "insensitivity to them"

Is Melissa Etheridge being insensitive to gays also?

Is the 177 member contingent representing the Lesbian and Gay Band Association — the first gay/lesbian group ever to march in a presidential inaugural parade - betraying gays by taking part in an inauguration that pastor Warren is involved in?

Is Obama really saying "Fuck the gays" here?

Can't understand why people are condemning him so strongly. Picking Warren for this inconsequential role has no effect on gay issues one way or the other.

[davidinalameda]

13. so a band trumps a homophobic preacher giving the invocation to one of the most historical events

in recent memory?

[grantdevine]

16. Nothing "trumps" anything else. It's all just part of the day.

The preacher giving the invocation is meaningless to many, just as the band is.

The preacher is not worth getting worked up about.

[Bette Noir]

24. So marriage is less important than where on a bus a person is allowed to sit?

Just trying to figure out what the priorities are.

Me, I'm especially worried that it's an INVOCATION the hateful b*st*rd is going to perform. I've seen "Ghostbusters."

[JoFerret]

27. With Rick Warren?

Yes he is. Absolutely.
I hope he will learn from this mistake.

[wellst0nev0ter]

28. Let Me Make This Clear.

Melissa Etheridge is excusing Warren's participation based not on his past concerning gays but on the fact that he's a person she would like to have a beer with. This is exactly how people like Warren draw people in: they peddle personality. Now, I don't like questioning other people's individual agency, but after reading her valentine to Warren, I could reach no other conclusion. The way she reported it, he changed her mind by (1) flattering her and (2) contriving cheap remorse while yet still remaining uncommittal to her cause. Bush often says he weeps over the fallen soldiers he killed in Eye-Rack, should we excuse him for his murders? We had eight years of this cult of personality bullshit, we don't need eight more.

And that consolation prize of a gay marching band sort of reminded me of how Booker T was the first black person who DIDN'T build the White House to actually eat in it. Yeah, I bet that changed everything, didn't it?

BTW, the fact that someone like Warren is invited over the cries of protest over the gay community, and people like you seem happy to go along with it, speaks volumes on how far we have to go. If that isn't a profound effect on gay issues in this day in age, I don't know what is.

[GinaMaria]

4. File that under 'No Duh" n/t

[xchrom]

5. recommend

[defendandprotect]

6. ...and many not gay are also disappointed about all of this ....

[Hydra]

11. Another non-LBGTer HIGHLY disappointed at this

"This is not the change we need"

I'm co-opting that, since Obama doesn't seem to need it anymore.

[Skittles]

7. hard to believe they were ever enthusiastic

[Truth Teller]

31. HA!

Good point.

[grantdevine]

8. I don't see why this is such a big deal. Is Obama supposed to shun every anti-marriage person?

Is Warren's role at the inauguration really that big a deal? What about the 177 member contingent representing the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, the first ever gay/lesbian group to march in an inauguration parade? Buried at the bottom of the story, but certainly far more significant than this Warren guy.

And the fact that those two gays were not picked for the Cabinet should not be an issue either. The important thing is not whether someone is gay or not, it's whether they're best for the job.

Seems like a whole lotta noise over very little.

[Hydra]

10. Yes, it is

If you need to know why, ask Barney Frank

[grantdevine]

12. Nah. It's much ado about nothing. n/t

[davidinalameda]

14. when people vote to take away your basic civil rights

then we'll talk

[grantdevine]

18. I don't care who gives the innvocation or whatever. It has no effect on

my civil rights, or yours.

[davidinalameda]

19. whatever

it looks like my ignore list is getting bigger

[grantdevine]

21. That reflects more on you than it does me.

But by all means, crush my spirit to bits by ignoring me.

[madeline_con]

25. Rick Warren helped lead the charge to pass Prop 8, you know.

It has an effect on a lot of people's civil rights.

[JetCityLiberal]

30. You are full of it

what a bunch of idiotic right wing bullshit you are posting and continue to post to our GLBT DUers.

If you don't see the problem, you are the problem. And you are transparent on GLBT issues and equal rights under the law and the platform your homophobic despicable pal Warren is being given.

You got yours....yeah right...:puke:

[grantdevine]

37. Whatever. My "pal" Warren will do his thing, it will be over, and nothing will be affected..,.

...for the worse.

Obama will improve things for GLBT people in the years to come. No doubt as that's happening you will still be running around with a bee in your bonnet complaining about this one thing.

Get over it.

[JetCityLiberal]

38. I will never get over my GLBT friends who do not have

equal rights under the law TODAY and are having their equal rights under the law taken away by the tyranny of the bigoted majority.

You have no problem with that. What a 'surprise'....:puke:

[grantdevine]

41. And you have a problem being honest.

And since I don't know who you are I can't really say it's a surprise, but I will say people tend more dishonest on the internet. Maybe that's your situation.

[Hydra]

15. Was Obama's political cave-in on FISA "nothing"?

Silence is acceptance. Do you accept Warren as a good representative of the religious spirit of our country?

[grantdevine]

17. Do you view the choice of this preacher a "political care in"?

And if so, how, exactly? Will Warren get to job over to the WH after inauguration and write up some anti-gay laws?

Let's get real here.

[Hydra]

20. He already helped pass an anti-human rights law

So you're playing with fire in your attempts at dismissing the discussion.

There's no good reason for Obama to have Warren give the opening prayer- even Bush never invited someone like him to do so.

And you might want to consider your own skin in this if you aren't one of his parishioners- they're unselective in their choice of prey, or hadn't you heard?

[defendandprotect]

23. True ...

Obama went where Bush has never gone on honoring Warren ---

[defendandprotect]

22. Honoring Warren ...

a bigot -- is quite different from someone simply holding

an immature or ill-informed opinion of homosexuals and

gay marriage.

What if you were a woman, or had a daughter . . .

What if you were Jewish . . .

What if you were homosexual . . .

Can you not imagine the "convenience" to racists had Segregation

been put up to a popular vote in the South . . .

What would it take for you to "get it" . . . ????

[JonQ]

39. If he'd gone on record as being pro-segregation

just for example, I think it wouldn't be shrugged off as easily. No matter how small his role in the inauguration.

[ima_sinnic]

26. "change"--a meaningless campaign slogan that suckered millions

. . . and apparently the idea that the new president will actually listen to the voters is also an empty piece of rhetoric. How much nicer and more inclusive it would have been to have a nondenominational pastor--say someone from the UU church--give the invocation, something that could have brought in elements of all the major belief systems without offending or excluding anyone. But apparently Warren, like the DLC, is more important than the stupid voters.

[cali]

29. There is a potential silver lining

Obama will either have to do something concrete to demonstrate his support for civil rights for the GLBT community, or forfeit a significant degree of support not just from that community but from the larger community of progressives/liberals. And he'll have to do it quickly upon assuming office.

We'll see.

[closeupready]

32. Yep. He had a lot of supporters defending his missteps during the primary. Those people will silence

themselves during future kerfluffles. If he wants to go it alone on gay rights issues, then he goes it alone on everything else, since gay is a central part of who I am and always have been and always will be.

[LeFleur1]

33. It's Important Because...

When someone who influences a whole bunch of people to vote a certain way, and that way is to take rights from others...not just gays (who can't belong to Warren's church, so it isn't just an "opinion" he holds) it's very important.
This man is being elevated because of Obama's approval of him. In fact, he approves of him enough to put him in the spotlight where he can influence even more people to vote against gays and women's rights.

Please don't forget that this preacher also does not believe in equal rights for women. It isn't just gays. Who knows what other bigotry he will expouse when he gets the country's microphone after the spotlight gig.

Now he's saying he never said the things he absolutely did say on tape. Maybe he's a sleep talker.
Maybe he's a black out drunk. I don't know why he would say he didn't say what he said on widely viewed tapes and on his website.

There are a gazillion preachers who believe the teachings of Jesus who Obama could have asked to stand in the spotlight on his special day. There are gay preachers, women preachers, straight preachers, preachers of every hue, all who believe in equal rights for everyone. Why not one of them? You know, just to show the country that there will be no further government tolerance for bigotry.

[closeupready]

34. Absolutely.

n/t

[Cha]

36. WTF?! Obama isn't perfect? Obama

has "misteps"?! Yep, it's true..but he won and he is our Democratic President.

[robcon]

35. Obama lost much more than he gained with the Warren invitation.

For some people this won't be over after January 20. And I don't think the fundamentalist Christians will give Obama any credit for this.

A wasted gesture.

[RCinBrooklyn]

40. Interesting that as much as I hated Bush, I always knew where he stood on issues. Not Obama. Fuck'im