Interesting story from the New York Times about President Obama's White House reception on the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall. Obama asked to be judged on his actions, not just his promises.
As noted in the Times article, Obama acknowledged impatience by his LGBT supporters and asked to be judged by his vows kept.
“I know that many in this room don’t believe progress has come fast enough, and I understand that,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago.
He further goes on to say:
“We’ve been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.”
I hope he's right.
UPDATE:
It was suggested that I include the link to his full speech which is now here.
After reading the comments posted so far, the thing that has struck me most is the overwhelming agreement that Obama has done virtually nothing material for LGBT Americans to-date. One reason I posted this diary is that Obama himself has finally publicly acknowledged the frustration of LGBT Americans. The other is that he himself acknowledges that it's not his place to ask LGBT Americans to be patient for basic equality any more than it was for others to ask African Americans to do the same 50 years ago.
As someone who supported his campaign (including with donations) I was glad to hear him admit this as I've been very frustrated by not only his lack of positive action (not to mention his administration's DOJ hateful DOMA brief), but also the numerous comments on Daily Kos in the past few weeks either telling us that we need to be patient, and/or discounting the importance of basic civil rights for LGBT Americans that heterosexual Americans routinely take for granted. If Obama can acknowledge that he is not in a position to "counsel patience" to us, than hopefully others can get that they aren't either.
If we don't move on these issues now -- with a Democratic House, filibuster-proof Democratic Senate (Minnesota willing) and Democratic White House, then exactly when will we?
Obama has asked us to judge him by his vows kept. I'll be happy to once he keeps them.