I attended the Obama / Patty Murray rally yesterday in Seattle. The event was well produced and attended, and I should have been energized. But I wasn't, actually the opposite.
I met up with a friend while waiting in the long line that stretched around the stadium. We'll call him Jim to protect his identity. I haven't seen him in a few weeks so we were catching up on all the political happenings, and of course we hit Don't Ask Don't Tell pretty quickly given recent developments and the Obama Administration's request for a stay of the District Court Judge's order to halt the discriminatory policy as unconstitutional.
As we discussed, the people next to us in line overheard and Jim got engaged in a fairly heated conversation with these folks. His main argument was that President Obama is complicit in the recently GLBT youth suicides because his Justice Department has repeatedly defended the law.
The conversation turned into an argument, and Jim was getting obviously enraged as these other Obama supporters tried to defend him and his approach to repeal. Comments like "his fierce advocacy is killing us" and "second class citizen" were loudly thrown around, inciting one elderly gentlemen to utter "that's bulls**t" in our direction.
It was brought up that Hillary did one of the viral "It Gets Better" videos, which inevitably led to the "she's not the president" and would have done a better job on DADT. Eventually Jim and our neighbors in line pretty much agreed to disagree, and we actually ended up having a really nice time talking to them and left on a positive note.
My personal take has been all along that Obama committed to repeal this year, and I am willing to give him to the end of the year to show real progress on this issue. But Jim's argument about the connection to the suicides was a new one I had not heard before, which really resonated with me and made me upset.
I've been re-publishing this list of Obama Administration GLBT accomplishments (thanks to ThisIsMyTime's great diary) as a way to counter-act the negativity, but it didn't seem like enough to convince even myself anymore:
- Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
- Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
- Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
- Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)
- Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
- Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
- Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
- Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity
Finally, we get to the rally. Throughout his remarks and the remarks of all of the other speakers, President Obama never audibly addressed GLBT issues or DADT. Afterwards, I have been told he did mention it as part of a litany of other things he wants to accomplish, but seems to have rolled back the repeal "this year" timeline to now be "under my watch".
Needless to say, I wanted to leave the event energized and enthusiastic, and I found myself at the lowest point of this election cycle instead.
Until this morning, when NPR informed me that President Obama has now released an It Gets Better video also! And suddenly, the rainy Seattle clouds have parted, the sun is shining and I feel better than I have about this President in months. Thank you President Obama, and thanks to my friend for his passion on this issue.
What I needed most this year was not hope, that was so 2008. What I need this year is to believe, and this helps me believe the President really is on our side.