Reply #66: It is interesting that you brought up LBJ and the Civil rights act

[Bluenorthwest]

That issue came up here on DU during the 08 primary. The consensus among Obama supporters here at that time was that it was very wrong to give LBJ even a shred of credit, because they said all of that credit belonged to King and Malcolm and the activists. A search would show you that the approach desired for Obama is the opposite of the approach they desired for LBJ. The double standard thing is sickening. This OP says Obama did more for gay people than gay people, than anyone in history. He did nothing that LBJ did not do on civil rights.
The President should get proper credit for what he has done, but so should all of the people who did so much more under difficult conditions. Like any civil rights battle, ours is filled with stories of people who lost it all for the cause. People who were shot to death, for example. The fact that in most of our States, right now today, it is legal to deny housing or employment to a person for being GLBT makes it pretty hard to accept that the person who has put the most of themselves on the line is a President sitting on a silk chair being served by staff. Compared to the regular people who get fired or evicted for speaking out? Compared to Harvey dead on the floor?
Also, I think most straight people do not recall that it was only as recent as Bill Clinton's nomination speech that the word 'gay' was even spoken by a national Democrat. The sad and sorry history of the Party in terms of gay people prior to that era is another chapter of shame, but let's focus on the fact that it was not all that long ago that we were the 'people who dare not speak our names' and Bill was the first to so much as say that name. The positive history of the DNC and the GLBT community is very short, nationally it starts with Bill Clinton, candidate. So he was the first to say a word, then we got Bush, who was evil, then Obama who is doing better than Clinton could, to a great degree because of all the work done in the culture between the two administrations. While the world cowered to Bush, we carried on, and when Obama came in we were 'shovel ready'.
I think many other groups of Democrats could learn a lot about how we got the repeal, how we changed hearts and minds, how we got it to the President's desk. I wish to hell others would do the same around their own important issues. Reducing the history to catch phrases is not the path to understanding the full story. Understand that story, and you too can make change. Think about it.