S.O.S.

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Barack Obama is adding a coda to Mario Cuomo's observation that people campaign in poetry but govern in prose: based on his press conference yesterday, when it comes to gay rights, even prose is failing him. On our issues, he is governing in grunts.

There is no better illustration of how badly the toxic residue of anti-gay prejudice distorts ordinary politics than Obama's flailing on the simple and fundamental issue of the inequality that federal law demands for those who are homosexual. And that is a point that cannot be overemphasized: DOMA and DADT are federal laws that explicitly require the government to discriminate based on a person's sexual orientation. Discrimination is the considered policy of the U.S. government when it comes to lesbians and gay men.

To be fair, we share part of the blame for the President's dilemma. Some of our leaders led him to believe that gestures toward equality would do. But since Obama was elected, four states have recognized full marriage equality, three of them by legislative action. On the other side of the ledger, the government has discharged one of its most articulate and talented Arabic translators, Lt. Dan Choi, because he has been honest about being gay -- at the same time that 69% of Americans say they do not support the policy under which he was fired. That is, in large part why the weak tea the President offered yesterday looked so much like weak tea.

What he did is satisfying enough, if you're among the 2% of American workers who are federal employees, and also among the 3% or so of them who are homosexual, and also among the unknown percent of them who have a committed partner. I'm not a mathematician, but I believe the overlap of these three circles in a Venn Diagram would be quite small. I know I'm immediately disqualified because I'm in the 98% of workers who isn't a federal employee.

But the scattershot benefits that are now available to that infinitesimal percentage of Americans exclude the one that makes the biggest daily difference in people's lives: health insurance. This is not just the dominant benefit in most people's employment, it comprises, by itself, between 6.9% and 8.1% of total compensation.

But the President's compelled performance was matched by those in our community who had to grit their teeth and act as if they were grateful. Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force did everything but blink out S.O.S. with her eyelids in supporting the memo.

And, let's be honest, none of this would have happened (at least not now) but for the DNC fundraiser that continues to fall apart because the President's DOJ filed its "squalid" brief (in Dale Carpenter's perfect description) in the Smelt case - the very non-pink elephant in the room the President declined to mention.

Despite all this, it is depressing to have to acknowledge the Democrats remain better on gay issues than Republicans. But when even the Democrats are still acting with the skittishness of 1994, it's hard to distinguish the two.

At the very least, I wouldn't want to give the DNC the $1000 entrance fee to their fundraiser. At best, I think that all we've gotten from them is about $57 worth of equality.

5 Comments for “S.O.S.”

  1. posted by BobN on

    And, let?s be honest

    Yes, let’s. Policy changes in the previous administration may have been made on the fly, with no preparation and, god knows, no attempt to comply with existing law, but this administration has shown that it does legwork. In this case, more legwork than can be thrown together in a few days to “save” a DNC fund-raiser.

    You know that. You’re not unfamiliar with the process. Don’t let your frustration lead you to misrepresent.

    As to Dem and GOP being indistinguishable, I don’t know about you, but when I look at my out life, I can’t think of a single aspect of it which has been enabled by the GOP.

    Can you?

  2. posted by Bobby on

    “As to Dem and GOP being indistinguishable, I don’t know about you, but when I look at my out life, I can’t think of a single aspect of it which has been enabled by the GOP.”

    —Can you think of a single thing democrats have done that have enabled your out life? I’d like to know, because the democrats stand against almost everything I hold dear. So according to some, I should just drop every value I have and vote for the democrats just because they promise to push for gay rights when in reality they rarely if ever deliver.

    And even if they did deliver, do we want to live in a socialist version of America where taxes are sky high to pay for millions of welfare programs? Are gay rights more important than low taxes, protecting the second amendment, national security, business development, and freedom in general? Sorry buddy, but I don’t want to spread the wealth, I’m poor enough already.

  3. posted by BobN on

    Bobby, you’re not just poor, you’re so partisan you’re blind and that, sadly, leads you say really stupid things.

  4. posted by jim on

    Gibbon’s observation regarding the Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus:

    “He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.”

  5. posted by Bobby on

    “Bobby, you’re not just poor, you’re so partisan you’re blind and that, sadly, leads you say really stupid things.”

    —I’m no more partisan than you, BobN. You have tunnel vision when it comes to gay rights, if the American Nazi Party was pro-gay you’d probably vote for them.

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