Reax to the Big Fat Memo

It's a day that marks a historic step towards the changes we seek, but I think we all have to acknowledge this is only one step. Among the steps we have not yet taken is to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. I believe it's discriminatory, I think it interferes with states' rights, and we will work with Congress to overturn it.

We've got more work to do to ensure that government treats all its citizens equally; to fight injustice and intolerance in all its forms; and to bring about that more perfect union. I'm committed to these efforts, and I pledge to work tirelessly on behalf of these issues in the months and years to come.

--President Barack Obama, June 17, 2009

Anderson Cooper with Richard Socarides and Dustin Lance Black:

Keith Olbermann with Joe Solmonese:

Rachel Maddow with Rep. Tammy Baldwin:

Rep. Barney Frank, in an official statement, amazingly changes his mind about the matter:

It is the President’s job to try to change the law, but it is also his obligation to uphold and defend it when it has been enacted by appropriate processes. It would not be wise, in my judgment, for those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, or who sympathize with the fight for our rights, to argue for a precedent that says that executives who disagreed politically with the purpose of the law should have the option of refusing to defend it in a constitutional case. . . . after rereading this brief, I do not think that the Obama administration should be subject to harsh criticism in this instance.

And don't forget the wingnut right is still very much with us and they are eating up this story, as Pat Robertson once again goes into Jeezusbabble mode: on the one hand, LGBT people are such a tiny part of the population, they are totally insignificant; on the other hand, they are so dangerous that they are sending this country straight to destruction:

BTW - if anyone pulls this argument on you, remind them of two things. First, every nation or empire of the past has risen and then eventually fallen; nothing lasts forever in this world, and the success of nations depends on money and might, not sex. And Two, the Roman Empire, to take the most famous example, fell apart a hundred years or more after Christianity was made the state religion, and homosex was outlawed.

So much for that theory. In fact, Gibbon, who wrote the famous The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the 18th century, still in print today, came under great criticism for that book's thesis, which was that it was the adoption of Christianity more than anything else that led to the Empire's ruin.

But back to reality, and the present day. What to do next? Seems obvious to me that the President and his White House crew are not going to do anything for us just out of the goodness of their hearts. Left to their own devices, they will do something if and when they get around to it. They felt the heat this week, and they responded with a tiny scrap of equality - and note that Hillary beat the President to the punch, over at the State Dept., by a month on that, for her employees.

The political system doesn't run automatically, throwing out good things all by itself, as you may have imagined when you were nodding over your civics textbook in junior high. Politicians may have good intentions, but that's not enough to get the job done; those intentions have to be turned into action, and that happens when they realize they have to act to keep their jobs, or their campaign funds.

So how to turn up the heat on Congress and the President? I don't know exactly, lots of other people have ideas on that, some good, some silly. But we all need to be thinking about it, and working for equality as best we can. It won't just happen, guys; we have to push and shove and dig and sweat for it, that's all too clear after this week's revelations.