Wow, I don't understand.
why doesn't Obama see the progress we've made very recently and want to build on that, take advantage of it?
Is he already thinking about 2012? Is this kind of "pragmatism" going to infect all of his presidential decisions over the next four years?
As an avid supporter, someone who's been "drinking the koolaid" for about a year now, these are the very real and valid questions I have that I want answered.
In my opinion, keeping Rick Warren away from any national platform is an act of public service.
Please follow me below if you have any information that could help me understand.
Obama was very successful at making every day Americans like me feel empowered, it would be a shame if he showed me he was only empowering me so that I'd go pull the lever for him, not empowering me to make Real Change happen. I'm still in my 20's, this is still a very idealistic time in my life and I can't help but take this anti-gay sympathy personally.
What I really don't understand is that after Prop8 passed we saw an unprecedented outcry across this country Against discrimination of the LGBT community.
On the night of the election my sister who used to be passionately anti-gay marriage told me this (paraphrasing):
I'm not as disappointed as I thought I might be, McCain was never really my candidate and Obama's election actually makes me feel really proud to be American. Also, I want the gays to have the right to marriage because I want everyone to get married. Also, I want the gays to have the right to marriage because, I'm not cold, I have a heart, I'm compassionate.
She's a wonderful person, so I'm not surprised that she finally figured it out, that gays are human beings like you and me. In fact, I don't think the majority of the anti-gays are cold, heartless, evil people. I think these people have just been indoctrinated and choose to not think about the issue at a real depth. When people ask them about it they just regurgitate the Rush talking points and racial ethnic sexist anti-gay slurs.
I think the only way these people are going to be cajoled out of their horribly unfair perspectives and discrimination is through culture and desensitization. Or, you could just call it awareness. After Prop 8 there were multiple national protests and several national and local news stations actually discussed the issue and sometimes even allowed debate. Gay sympathy has hit the mainstream and we have an opportunity here to take advantage of it and create Real Change and Progress. Or, we can squander that real progress by giving any American who is still infected by anti-gay sentiments a national platform. By "we" I mean, Obama.
In my opinion, keeping Rick Warren away from a national platform is an act of public service.
I don't understand how Obama can see it differently and I have to come to the conclusion that he doesn't want to take advantage of our gains, which means he's either opportunistic or just anti-gay.