Obama's Tyranny of Timidity -- Garden State Equality's Latest Press Release

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

For immediate release
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Garden State Equality statement
From chair Steven Goldstein:

Garden State Equality devoted considerable time and resources to Barack Obama’s campaign for President last year in New Jersey. As an organization, we endorsed then-Senator Obama before the end of the 2008 Democratic primaries, when many of us who had been supporting various Democratic Presidential candidates came together in the interests of unity to help defeat George W. Bush.

We have supported President Obama with passion. But when a leader or political party takes the LGBT community for granted, our highest loyalty must be to the community itself. We will criticize where criticism is due.

President Obama now deserves our criticism. His first five months in office have been a tyranny of timidity when it comes to advancing civil rights of the LGBT community.

Today, his much anticipated action extending benefits to domestic partners of federal employees specifically excludes health benefits. To be clear, federal law would not prevent him from granting health benefits. The President’s action today is not even an executive order, which he has the option to issue, but rather a lesser memorandum whose legal effect is more temporary.

Earlier this month, the Obama Administration filed a brief defending the anti-LGBT Defense of Marriage Act in court. That is in direct conflict with the President’s repeated promises as a candidate and as President to oppose DOMA.

Adding insult to injury, in the Obama Administration’s brief advocating the continuation of DOMA, the Administration's lawyers have repeated all of the Bush Administration’s most heinous prejudices against the LGBT community.

Let’s be clear: It is not true that President Obama’s Department of Justice is legally compelled to defend lawsuits against the federal government. And never in a way that constitutes a grotesque slander against the LGBT community.

The President's sad early record doesn’t stop there. The Obama Administration has offered excuse after excuse in refusing to take action on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The President has the power to issue an executive order to immediately halt discharges based on the corrupt military policy – a policy which three-fourths of all Americans oppose.

Immigration reform that would unite binational same-sex couples in the interests of fairness and compassion doesn’t even seem to be on the president’s radar screen. And why hasn’t the President, who knows how to use the power of the bully pulpit, been more forceful in advocating for the passage of a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act?

Garden State Equality rejects the arguments of those who say, give the President more time. Or that this President has done more for the LGBT community already than his predecessors.

First, a popular new President’s popularity will never be higher than now. President Obama will never have more political capital than now.

Secondly, we’re tired of comparisons to previous presidents. 2009 is not 1992. Times have changed radically. As poll after poll and state law after law indicate, the nation is moving ahead on LGBT civil rights far faster than is President Obama.

In the fight for civil rights, good things don’t come to those who wait. Good things come to those who demand equality today.

Civil rights progress doesn’t result from those who say, cut our leaders some slack. Civil rights progress results from those who say, half-baked caution won’t cut the mustard.

In the bold spirit in which Garden State Equality has worked to get 210 LGBT civil rights laws enacted in New Jersey in the past five years, and has helped to bring New Jersey to the cusp of marriage equality, we reject pastel progress.

We demand more vibrant advocacy, right here and now, from the President who had the audacity to call himself our fiercest advocate.

[sniffa]

1. Another 5 Monther

:eyes:

[QC]

2. She is evil, like Hitler or Keith Olbermann. n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. But cuter

[snake in the grass]

24. You can denigrate all you want...

...but I agree with the OP. The LGBT community should pursue this relentlessly until they have equal rights. It is fully appropriate and within their constitutional rights to continuously point out the fact that Obama is pussy footing on the issue. While true that nothing can get done overnight, I really don't hear much on the matter coming from the administration and the DoJ brief was offensive in its wording, whether the President saw it or not. I find it more than disappointing that you and others on DU have no other response to their plight than to roll your eyes and say, "there they go again,". A group of our fellow citizens is being discriminated against on a daily basis. Why is it so hard for you to comprehend that they are sick of it?

[ruggerson]

26. Don't worry

he agrees with you.

[vaberella]

4. I point to Barney Frank's statement.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8480688

[incapsulated]

5. Barney does not speak for all gay people and groups

He is one elected official.

One that many were ready to throw under the bus when they thought he was saying something else.

And I like Frank a lot.

[vaberella]

6. I never stated he did. However, I'm pointing to another point of view.

Secondly, so what if he's an elected official? Is this a new meme of sorts to discredit his statement. So as an elected official, his voice is automatically tainted? B/c that is the impression I'm lead to believe by your statement. Actually because he has a firm understanding of the law in some respects he understands the confines that Obama is in and yet this article above states Obama has done basically nothing. And what he has done is nothing of importance.

As an aside when Frank said his first statement I had two responses. It's not like him because he's one of the closest people to the President and advises the President heavily and secondly if this was so offensive I want to know why I have yet to see a bill or some legislation for him on repealing DADT and DOMA. As far as throwing him under the bus, I did not. However many here exalted him when he was bashing Obama and now I notice lots of throwing under the bus after he put in a correction.

[QC]

7. Seems like only two or three days ago Elton John was our official spokesperson.

Oh wait, it was only two or three days ago.

Of course, either one of them is an improvement over Melissa's Etheridge's illiterate girlfriend. Do you remember how she was appointed our spokesperson last December, when she said something nice about Rick Warren?

[LostinVA]

8. I trust GSE a heck of alot more than Barney -- and I like Barney

[bluedawg12]

9. Barney is now the darling

of the entire world - since he is the final and only legal opinion ever anywhere.

:rofl:

[jonnyblitz]

15. I lost respect for Barney when he dropped trans people from

ENDA.

[Forkboy]

39. New info on that....

Rep. Frank close to introducing ENDA

An aide to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that the congressman plans to introduce a revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act next week that will include protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Diego Sanchez, who is transgender and a senior policy adviser to Frank, said the bill has been changed from the so-called "gay-only" version that the House passed in 2007 to include language banning job discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation.

Sanchez said that, as of Wednesday, the bill had eight House co-sponsors, including four Democrats and four Republicans. Among the sponsors were gay House members Frank, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.). The lead Republican sponsor is Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).

Sanchez made his impromptu comments about ENDA at a morning policy meeting sponsored by gay rights attorney and political consultant Robert Raben of the Raben Group.

In an interview with the Blade on Tuesday, Frank said he believes prospects for passing a trans-inclusive ENDA have improved significantly since 2007, when he and other House Democratic leaders said the measure would be defeated if a gender identity clause were kept in the bill.

http://www.sovo.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=25791

[AtomicKitten]

10. Great strategy to heckle the only avenue for the change you demand.

:sarcasm:

[sniffa]

14. Interesting

:sarcasm:

[AtomicKitten]

17. Ask yourself if this antagonism is moving your cause forward.

The object of the game is to gather allies, not slam the door in their face. It's just poor political strategy all around.

[ruggerson]

21. I thought this was your cause as well

it's OUR cause. Or should be.

[mtnester]

33. +1

[AtomicKitten]

34. Not at DU. At DU that particular cause is jealously guarded by some,

epithets hurled and accusations made. Of course DU isn't real life and your assumption of support or lack thereof wrong, but that reality seems to be just a tiny detail lost in the scheme of things around here.

And that takes my back to my original point, that in real life a progressive tactic would be a rallying call for solidarity rather than using it as a weapon for internet posturing, attacking natural allies in the process.

Quite frankly I'm put off by my own LGBT friends who sat on their asses while I worked the phones against Prop 8; in fact, I got a noogie and "Isn't she cute?" when I complained. So, at this particular moment I'd say I'm not convinced some aren't more interested in posturing on the internet than actually achieving the next frontier in civil rights.

[ruggerson]

35. The OP is a long excerpt from the head of a New Jersey group

So I don't quite get why it raised your ire. It's pretty standard fare for an activist. Obama is now the establishment, he is the President, so it is natural for advocacy groups to hold his feet to the fire. Gay folks (or I should say many politically active gay folks) are irked at the President for inaction on a broad range issues, so they are pushing at him. It's been a fairly broad phenomena which slowly gained steam over the last half year. When the furor over the Smelt brief resulted in many folks pulling out of the DNC fundraiser, there was an almost immediate response from the WH. I think the President has pretty thick skin, but he's a good politician and he's nimble enough to respond when he sees trouble brewing. There is really no rational reason why people supportive of marriage equality and gay rights in general should get defensive when LGBT leaders demand things of our President. He is fully aware of the politics of the situation and understands the process, including the need for the confrontational ones, both the bloggers and those in the trenches, to press him, sometimes rather undiplomatically.

As for your friends, they sound like a lazy ass bunch. :)

[AtomicKitten]

36. My comments are regarding the atmosphere here at DU.

I wasn't talking about advocacy. I'm talking about the demonization and accusatory epithets throw about carelessly that create an exclusionary atmosphere that is counterproductive.

I would add my LGBT friends in retrospect agree they are a lazy ass bunch but promise to do better next go.

[ruggerson]

37. Conversely

I think you'll also find that there are a lot of people at DU consistently and methodically urging everyone to get involved in this fight and attempting to be as inclusive as possible. No minority achieves equality without the backing of a healthy percentage of the majority. There are all kinds of people at DU with all kinds of interests and competing agendas. I find it hard to generalize about the atmosphere surrounding any one specific group.

[AtomicKitten]

41. Bill Maher broke it down nicely.

It's about being on the same side. The behavior of some people has made me feel we aren't on the same side, and that has more to do with individual personalities than any agenda or issue. Don't confuse the two and make assumptions. Many people don't speak up on this issue (and I'm certain others as well) because they have been attacked. And that brings me back to my original point about not heckling potential allies.

SF ---> http://www.kingtut.org/plan_your_visit?location=san%20francisco

[ruggerson]

20. It's not heckling - it's public criticism. It's pushing.

There are other large gay rights groups, primarily the HRC, which are working the traditional back room channels to the White House and rarely criticize the President at all.

Both forms of advocacy are needed if we are to be successful. You need confrontational agitators like Aravosis and Towle and you also need mainstream power players who will work with the WH behind the scenes.

[JeffR]

22. Actually, in your case, ruggerson, it's consistently smart criticism

and as such I agree that it's hugely important pushing. Your posts are unwaveringly intelligent, informed and valiant. I wish Aravosis, for example, were half as cogent and on-point as you are. He could learn something from you and it would do him no end of good.

Just wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate you. You're a hell of a great advocate in a righteous cause.

[ruggerson]

23. thanks Jeff

There are a lot of great advocates here. We're lucky to have such a diverse group of committed, opinionated people, on these issues and many others, willing to share their thoughts and their passion.

:toast:

[JeffR]

25. And that's what keeps me here.

Well, that, the Photo Group and the DUzy Awards, which fortunately draw on an ever-increasing pool of silliness, intentional and otherwise.

I really appreciate the counterweights to that silliness, such as yourself. These are extremely serious issues, and you can always be counted on to address them seriously, steering dependably around the superficial to get to the heart of the issue. Well done.

[jonnyblitz]

11. k & r.

:hi:

[bluedawg12]

12. For the timid: "...let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear

is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Franklin D. Roosevelt - March 4, 1933, First Inaugural Speech.

[LostinVA]

13. FDR and his cousin had some darned good quotes!

[Starry Messenger]

16. recommend.

Now is time for truth to power. Cap in hand was evidently not getting anyone's attention.

[Droogie666]

18. All Presidents Are Timid

He was even timid during the campaign.

[Starry Messenger]

19. Are they?

Some may be timid, but eventually rise to the occasion. Those we call Great Presidents. Time will tell.

[mtnester]

27. kick too

powerful statement

[bertman]

28. I thought trophy wives were vapid beauties with tiny intellects, but Haruka has broken the mold.

Recommend.

It should not be JUST the LGBT community that is demanding this, but ALL of us who want to see equal rights for every Amercan.

[mtnester]

30. Yes indeed!

:)

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

29. recommend

[ima_sinnic]

32. the "tyranny of timidity" extends into all important policy areas

including single-payer health care, withdrawing from Iraq, protecting the environment and endangered species, going against the bankers, Wall St., and corporate greedheads, holding torturers, traitors, and war criminals accountable, as well as equal rights for LGBT. This president will not take a stand on anything the least "controversial" that might upset the status quo or his stinking corporate contributors. His "advocacy" for anything ended on 1/20/09, and those who worked to get him elected can wait until 2012 to be "important" again.

[JI7]

38. now THIS is something OBama needs to speak out on

[tabbycat31]

40. K&R

I've been doing work for GSE lately. Such a good organization.