And he's amassing quite a record!
With the latest and milestone decision by Pres. Obama and Eric Holder to declare DOMA unconstitutional and not defend it in court, a decision that is likely to be very influential to a court, there will be many on DKos who still will not be satisfied and find some reason to fault him for it or question his motives. "He should have done that from day one they'll moan." "He's only doing it for political reasons." "It's getting close to an election." He's been maligned and labeled by bloggers on this site and by activists outside with such strong words:
enemy
homophobe
dismal failure
3rd Bush term
disappointment
coward
Enemy....Really? Homophobe...really? 3rd Bush term....really?
And as with Don't Ask Don't Tell, they will find some way, some reason not to give any of the credit to Obama but instead give the credit to others, including themselves.
I suppose those might be legitimate concerns if prior to all this he had no record of even small gestures or acomplishments on gay rights to speak of. To the contrary his record up to this point has been full of gestures and accomplishments of every kind. Bold, medium, small, tiny, and just words.
Just in case some of you missed the big headlines last Fall about the record hiring of gays in his administration (in less than two years!):
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
There was also this jewel one month ago about the hiring of more gays to the administration and the nomination of a gay lawyer to the federal bench:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/....
But I know...he hasn't appointed anyone to a "major" cabinet position.
And what about all thos executive orders?
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/...
I know....I've heard the naysayer's argments: that can easily be reversed by a Republican president. Well then I guess one can no longer say that it doesn't matter whether our president is a D or an R and it is yet another reason to work tirelessly for his reelection.
Comparing gay rights to civil rights struggles of the 60s? How magnanamous of him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
“In an event in the East Room marking the 40th anniversary of the riots surrounding New York's Stonewall Inn, where gay patrons rose up against a police raid in Greenwich Village, Obama sought to reassure guests that he had not abandoned the issues important to them. He also drew a parallel between the progress gays and lesbians have made in recent decades and the struggles of black Americans to win equality.”
And what kind of homophobe mentions "two fathers" in a Father's Day statement?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
In a Father’s Day statement Sunday, Obama called fathers “our first teachers and coaches, mentors and role models” and said that “nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian.”
More small gestures....actually reversing George W. at the UN re: gay rights is no small gesture...
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
By contrast, President Clinton, who remains highly regarded in the gay community, in his first 4 years in office gave us Don't Ask Don't Tell, signed DOMA into law and actually ran commercials during his re-election campaign in the South touting his signing of DOMA. But if I recall correctly during those years he was the first ever president to have a meeting with gays in the White House. Made me feel really proud! I suppose he may have signed a few executive orders in our favor, uttered some favorable words for us, and appointed a few of us to his administration and for that I voted to reelect him. But his accomplishments for gay rights pale in comparison to the first 2 years of the Obama Administration.
I am borrowing a comprehensive list (slightly edited by me) from a posting by blogger Dmitry Rashnitsov outlining the advances for gay rights under President Obama. It's not a complete list as I'm sure plenty of other things have been left out. Enjoy the reading and I'm sure some bloggers on here will find reason to criticize him even more and better yet....take all the credit for themselves.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW
• Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability – the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation’s history.
• Signed repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
• Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act.
POLICIES CHANGED
• Declared DOMA unconstitutional and no longer defends it in court
• Reversed an inexcusable U.S. position by signing the United Nations Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
• Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees in 2009 and, further, in 2010.
• Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010.
• Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign-service employees.
• Committed to ensuring that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders – the nation’s first ever – funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAG.
• Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer).
• Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage.
•Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
• Required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals.
• Adopted transgender recommendations on the issuance of gender-appropriate passports that will ease barriers to safe travel and that will provide governmentissued ID that avoids involuntary “outing” in situations requiring ID, like hiring, where a gender-appropriate driver’s license or birth certificate is not available.
• Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims.
• Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners.
• Issued guidance specifically to assist LGBT tenants denied housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Issued a National HIV/AIDS Strategy praised as “long-overdue” by the Task Force, Lambda and others.
• Issued guidance to 15,000 local departments of education and 5,000 colleges to support educators in combating bullying.
• Cut back authority to discharge under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from hundreds of generals to just six civilian appointees, effectively ending discharges while working toward a permanent end to the policy.
• Led the fight that reversed a 2010 United Nations vote removing sexual orientation from the list of things people should not be killed for.
RESPECT & INCLUSION
• Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide full partnership benefits to federal employees.
• Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamations since 2000.
• Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history.
• Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King, joining past recipients such as Rosa Parks.
• Appointed the first-ever transgender DNC member.
• Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA.
• Hired more openly LGBT officials in its first two years – more than 150, including more than 20 “Senate-confirmables” – than any previous administration hired in four years or eight.
• Swore in Ambassador David Huebner.
• Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department and the Department of Education.
• Appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, instead of conservatives who would have tilted the Supreme Court even further to the right and virtually doomed our rights for a generation.
• Named open transgender appointees (the first president ever to do so).
• Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the president’s historic NAACP address to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation; created the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies; included the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department and the president of Goldman Sachs in the small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange; and welcomed four gay couples to its first State Dinner.
• Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.
• Spoke out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast.
• Dispatched the secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
• Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study.
• Mentioned "Two Fathers" in a Father's Day proclamation
• Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons
• Appointed Retired Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, an early public champion of open service in the military, to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
• Publicly invited the shunned Mississippi high school prom student to the White House.
• Successfully fought for U.N. accreditation of IGLHRC (the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission) – against Republican attempts to block it.
• Convened the first-ever anti-bullying summit to craft a national strategy to reduce bullying in schools.
• Launched a new website, www.bullyinginfo. org, to bring all the federal resources on bullying together in one place for the first time.
• Awarded $13.3 million to the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center to create a model program for LGBTQ youth in the foster care system.
• Tweeted to 5.7 million BarackObama followers and nearly 2 million White House followers the president’s “It Gets Better” video.
• Embraced that campaign with heartfelt messages from, as well, the vice president, the secretary of state, secretary of agriculture (aimed particularly at rural youth), secretaries of education and health & human services, secretary of labor (in English and Spanish), director of OPM and LGBT members of the White House staff.
• Issued a Department of Justice video urging kids to call a Justice Department toll-free number if their school is aware of bullying but taking no action.
Updated by mikeymike68 at Fri Feb 25, 2011, 02:50:09 PM
I guess there is one more accomplishment to add. The White House just hired a gay man as its social secretary. Must be Michelle's doing.