Republican Roadblock - Now What?

The President's press conference after the election; transcript here.



Rachel Maddow:



Nicholas Kristoff:

On my blog, a Times reader named Eddie asked about President Obama: “Where is the man I voted for?”

“Does he ever sweat?” Eddie continued. “We’re in desperate times and I don’t see a man who is really affected by it.” He concluded: “We need a committed, passionate person to lead a country . . . not a Sunday school teacher taking cautious, baby steps.”

Well, it’s time for Mr. Obama to sweat like a racehorse. My feeling is that the country has gone too far on blaming its economic distress on Mr. Obama, failing to give him credit for averting another Great Depression among other achievements. But it seems as if Michelle and I may be the only ones who think that way. . . .

Mr. Obama has a far better product to sell than Tea Partiers like Mr. DeMint. But Mr. Obama needs to connect better with American voters. He needs to lose the cool and start sweating — and slugging.

Maureen Dowd:

Barack Obama became president by brilliantly telling his own story. To stay president, he will need to show he can understand our story.

At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode.

But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour.

Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one. . . .

One top aide told me that the president — who perversely tried to marginalize a once-captivated press corps — was beginning to realize that he had not used his charm as effectively as he could have.

His inner circle believed too much in the power of the Aura and in protecting the Brand. They didn’t think they needed to sell anything or fight back when the crazies started sliming them. They didn’t care that the average citizen needed an M.B.A. to understand the financial plan and a Ph.D. to fathom what the health care plan would mean.

Because Obama stayed above it all on health care and delegated to Max Baucus, he missed the moment in August of 2009 when Sarah Palin and the Tea Party got oxygen with their loopy rants on death panels. It never occurred to the Icon that such wildness and gullibility would trump lofty rationality.

As the president tries to ride the Tea Party tiger, let’s hope for this change: that he puts some audacity in his audacity.

David Mixner:

What is very clear is that is the national strategy of a delaying votes on our action items for freedom over the last two years turned out to be disastrous mistake. Many of us urgently begged for our President and our national organizations not to delay action or we would face a new Congress. Well, that is exactly what happened although no one could have forecast the landslide that took place.

Legislation: The prospects of passing ENDA and repealing DOMA and DADT are slim to none. No matter what the military report says in December the Republicans in Congress are not about to allow LGBT citizens into the military. Our only hope is that the Department of Justice will drop its appeal (yeah, right) or the President issues a stop loss order. I wouldn't hold our collective breath. Although we 'control' the Senate remember this is more a Senate of the Ben Nelsons and Max Baucuses then of our liberal friends. Nothing can get done without their support. Our opportunities have mostly vanished with our inaction over the last two years and we face a tough new world. If the courts continue to side with us, expect the 'constitutional marriage amendment' to be revived and we could be in trouble. . . .

As we continue with the dialogue about what is next we should be respectful of all of our brothers and sisters. There is a lot to discuss. None of us has all the answers but we are doomed if we don't carefully reflect on election day and what is next.

What I Say:  Your Head Trucker has nothing to add to the above.  Except that it's very ironic from a historical point of view that even as China by slow steps becomes more wealthy and more open, the United States seems to be moving in exactly the opposite direction:  repressive, insular, intolerant, and closed off.  Is it possible that we have already passed the high-water mark for gay rights in this country?

And like many of you, I'm sure, I'm totally disgusted and heartbroken over the way Obama gamed us in the 2008 election. So much pretty talk: all hat and no cattle, as we say down here in Texas.

BTW, Butthead Perry walked to an easy victory in the Texas governor's race Tuesday, by about a 2 to 1 margin statewide, with a voter turnout of only 36 percent. Ninety percent of my neighbors here in this rural, Bible-believing county voted for the asshole, and it was pretty much the same story for all the other Republican candidates. Which was only to be expected.

Some days, I just want to get in my truck and drive and drive and drive.

But there's nowhere to go, not really.  Assholes are everywhere, so you might as well just stay home.

VOTE, DAMN IT!

This guy is going to vote tomorrow - why aren't you?


You really want the assholes to be in charge of your life?  Get your ass up off the couch and VOTE, fucker. 

David Mixner:

No one has been more gravely disappointed and, at times livid, with the practically non-existent record of President Obama on LGBT equal rights. Over and over again I have held this administration's feet to the fire in an effort to force them to move forward in our struggle for freedom. As we all know by now, those pleas often have fallen on deaf ears. Our disappointment, anger and frustration is totally justified.

What is not justified is to allow those emotions to intrude on our ability to be intelligent voters this election day. We cannot and should not shoot ourselves in the collective foot because of the administration's actions.

Why is it important to vote? Let's get right down to it: If the House and Senate fall into Republican Tea Party hands on November 2nd, the LGBT community will be facing the most hostile United States Congress in our history. The election of these bonafide Teabagging wing-nuts could cause chaos, fear and intimidation in our political process. Their ascendancy to power would validate some truly dark and despicable forces operating in American politics. If we think it is hard to achieve equal rights now just try and do it in a Tea Party dominated Congress.

Mike Signorile:

In recent weeks I've heard some of you call in and say you're not voting, sitting this one out because you're unhappy with the White House or Congress. Others have said they'll vote for a lesser candidate, pretty much giving their vote to a Republican in a close election. But I have said on the show for quite a while now, no matter how angry you are at President Obama or disappointed with the Democratic leadership -- and I've been one of the biggest critics around -- it is imperative that you get out and vote for the Democrats and against the tea party-backed Republicans.

The Republican Party would like nothing better than to see the discontent in the Democratic base help them install truly the most extreme lot of candidates we have seen in many years. We've exposed the tea party as nothing more than a reconfiguration of all the religious zealots, moral crusaders, racists and bigots who've been around for years. Do not attempt to punish the President or the Democrats by punishing yourself. This country has been in a very precarious state for a long time, in which the political winds can usher in something radical and extreme very quickly. Bad economic times are always an opportunity for those who seek to do that. We have demanded and will demand full accountability by the Democrats and President -- who is not on the ballot until 2012 -- but don't do it by giving power to your enemies. As David Mixner says . . . vote as if your life depends on it, because it does.

Keith Olbermann kicks ass and names names:

The [objective is] to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get: backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the 1930's, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons. Result? The Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party.

And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy. To buy America wholesale and pave over the freedoms and the care we take of one another, which have combined to make us the envy of the world. You do not think your freedom is at stake next Tuesday?

Think again.  And if you city boys don't know how to use a gun, you'd fucking well better VOTE tomorrow, goddammit.



You do know what he means, don't you?



Mixner Says "Enough!"

An excerpt from David Mixner, now marking 50 years of activism for civil rights, who has these trenchant observations on President Obama and LGBT rights - emphasis in the original:

How bad is the situation? Really bad. We are not anywhere near there yet. By any stretch of the imagination. . . .

For the last year, over and over again in the blogsphere, we have written about how 2009 was our year. We understood never again would we have the kind of margin the Democrats had in Congress in the future, that it wasn't an election year and that the time to act was then. The Obama team, and yes HRC, told us to wait; that they had a grand plan and everything would take place in time.

Well the time is over for poetic words and empty promises. Our patience has run out. If HRC has a master plan and time schedule, we at this stage, have a right to know what it is and what the Obama team promised them last year. Simply put, enough of these political games and giving our friends permission to take detours, prolong the trip and deny us our freedom.

As our president memorably said a while ago, "Enough." Really and seriously - enough.

Honk to AmericablogGay.

Obama: Got Guts?

Yes, my friends, we are right to be disappointed and upset about the slow progress of equality and civil rights, including marriage rights, ENDA, DADT, and UAFA.

But in the midst of our justified anger, fellas - do keep it all in perspective.  My truckbuddy David Mixner, long-time activist, recently called the current situation in the United States "gay apartheid."

Now David has paid his dues and been on the front lines for civil rights for all Americans since the Vietnam era; and he's worthy of a lot of respect from those of us who, unlike David, have never been beaten or jailed for taking a public stand.

But I do think his phrase overstates the case.  As I've posted recently myself, things could be worse, much, much worse for gays, and in my own lifetime, they have been.

So while we're pissing and moaning about our own government - give a thought to the holocaust our brothers and sisters in Uganda are facing right now.

And I say, even if Obama doesn't do another goddamn thing for gays in his whole life, he must speak out against this genocide about to happen in Uganda.  Mixner thinks so too.  Don't you agree, boys? 

From Andrew Sullivan:

This gay Ugandan blogger's latest post is here - a heart-rending blend of disbelief, optimism and pessimism. From the comments section, a reader asks:

I hope the bill wont see the light of the day. How about your safety and that of other gay men at the moment?

The blogger's response:

Ha, life is unfair. No real assurance, or insurance to it.

Ok, seriously, what about our safety? Well, we are making lots of noise as and when we can now. When the bill becomes law, those of us who are out will be most likely hauled in for any more 'promotion' of homosexuality...!

But, sometimes, sometimes it is actually worth the while to hang out ones neck. Afterall, I will only die once.... Gallows humour. But, better than nothing.

"I will only die once." God have mercy.  The courage of the defenseless - the courage of St. Sebastian.

This law was inspired and directed by American fundamentalists, showing just exactly what they would do to us if only they could.

Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out:

Earlier tonight, Rachel Maddow aired an excellent 10-minute news segment about the Republican and evangelical leaders who, despite deep ties to Uganda, refuse to tell their close friends in the Ugandan leadership not to proceed with an antigay genocide and mass suppression of the families, doctors, and pastors of allegedly homosexual Ugandans.

The segment implicates Senators James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., members of The Family, mega-evangelist Rick Warren, and others in silent complicity with genocide.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bottom Line:  You can tell the President what you think he should do about this murderous plan here.  He wants to hear from you, he said so during the campaign many times - remember?

I remember, as I've posted, being beaten by homophobic bullies in high school; yet they broke no bones, drew no blood, the only lasting scars were those on my soul.  But I hate a bully.  I look at what's happening in Uganda now, and I see the same thing, a million times worse, about to happen.  And I think, there but for the grace of God am I.

Will Obama stand up for just one shining moment and tell the bullies to back off and leave the little guy alone?  Does he have the guts to take a stand for what's decent, for all those precious human rights he loves to speechify about?  Will he lift one finger to protect those at the mercy of religious hatred over there? 

Will you?

Write.  You voted for him, didn't you?  You're paying his salary.  He owes us this much.  At the very least.

P.S. - This law will go into effect next month, if passed.  Time is short.  And I'm furious that other world leaders - Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper, to name just two - have already spoken out face to face with Ugandan leaders - but not one damn peep out of my President.

Why the hell aren't you East Coast boys picketing the gates of the White House already?  And the Ugandan embassy?  You got guts?  Or at least nuts?  Or not? 

Or is it really true, what they say about all us sissies?  You tell me.

Silence Equals Death

David Mixner:

Not since Matthew Shepard was crucified on a fence in Wyoming has there been such a brutal hate crime as the recent one in Puerto Rico. Young, handsome and vibrant [Jorge] Steven Lopez Mercado was vicious killed, decapitated, dismembered, set afire and left like garbage along a road.  He was only 19 years old and from family reports was one of the most kind, thoughtful and humorous teenagers around. Sunday, thousands around the country held vigils in his memory determined that this not just be one more horrific hate crime chalked up on some cold statistic chart. . . .

As established institutions such as the Catholic and Morman churches have escalated their rhetoric and actions in order to stop civil marriage equality, their words have fallen on disturbed minds. When careless words are thrown around in order to prove a personal religious viewpoint, they have consequences. . . .

Of course they will throw up their hands and proclaim loudly that their spiteful words had no impact on the increase in particularly brutal hate crimes. After all, they love the sinner but hate the sin. Gandhi said that we have to measure our words as much as our actions. . . .

Equally disturbing is the lack of outrage from the straight community. Where is the Conference of Catholic Bishops condemning the death of this young teenager in Puerto Rico? Where are the Cardinals and Bishops as more and more young die horrible deaths because of hate? Where are the Mormans at the vigils in honor of young Mercado? Where are they? Where is their leadership? After all, if they have no responsibility for the deaths, then they certainly have the responsibility to speak out against such outrages.

Just in case those religious leaders who are forceful in their words against marriage equality didn't know, silence equals death and more death and more death.

What I say:  If you take your Bible straight out of the bottle, the inescapable conclusion from Leviticus and the Pauline letters is that gay people have no right to exist.  The plain meaning of the words cannot be any clearer:  "they shall be put to death"  . . .  "they will not inherit the Kingdom of God." 
 
Just trash.  Disposable.  Forgettable. 

No matter how kind,  how good, how talented, how intelligent, how selfless they might be.  None of that counts, none of that matters.  They are still just the turds of the human race.  So the Bible says.
 
Sullivan quotes some blogger whose ideas ultimately come from the same place:  gay unions are "a relationship based upon a sexual act which can never rise above entertainment."  Notice how that statement denies us any share whatsoever in humanity:  all our lives and all our works and all our loves are boiled down, reduced to mere sex; and that sex is worth less to the world than a dog's.
 
Now I know some of my gay brothers and sisters have found ingenious ways to interpret the Scriptures in a gay-friendly way - and God knows, like Jacob with the angel, I wrestled and struggled a long, long time with all that myself.  But lexicons and grammars and creative etymology aside, there is not the slightest bit of evidence that down through all the long centuries of belief, the Jewish or the Christian communities ever once granted gay people any breathing room, a place to stand, a miniscule hope of approval or tolerance, let alone acceptance. 
 
Until the modern gay rights movement began forty years ago, we have always been on the taboo list.  But Jews and Christians alike have, over the last century or so, found ways to reconcile their faith with the idea that women are not mere appendages and subordinates to men; also, with scientific discoveries about the creation and operation of the universe; and also, with the equal rights and dignity of non-white, non-European peoples.
 
And certainly, the Scriptural taboos against premarital sex and divorce, as well as some churches' teachings about contraception and abortion, straight people have merrily discarded or ignore at will.  If you brought the Scriptural prohibitions up to them on these matters, they would laugh and say, Oh well, after all, you can't expect us modern-day people to live according to those outdated, antiquated rules.  Hmm, how very convenient their thinking is, when it suits their purpose.  They ignore or reinterpret the Bible just as they please.
 
So they can damn well drop all the bullshit preaching against gay people too.  We have a life to live, and a right to live, just as much as any other human beings on this planet.  There is nothing intrinsically evil about loving the same sex; it's just one more happy variation of human existence, a very natural and normal part of the glorious multiform variety of life:  as much so as all the different kinds and colors of flowers, trees, and animals.

And yet those horrible, life-denying scriptures and sermons create, have long created, a poisonous atmosphere and prejudice against us:  when it all trickles down into the minds of the ignorant and violent, it literally kills us.
 
No more.  I used to think, Well I have to respect someone else's sincere religious convictions.  No.  Gays are hanged in places like Iran, or hunted down by gangs to be tortured to death in the most gruesome ways:  all of which is based on sincere religious convictions.  Punks and thugs who bash and murder gays in the West may not be consciously religious - but their hatred and viciousness is a direct outgrowth of the churches' antagonism towards us all these many centuries.
 
When Europeans began to colonize the New World, the native populations were hunted down, slaughtered, or stripped of their wealth and culture, turned into slaves and serfs, all in the name of God; "Holy" popes and "Most Christian" kings directed, authorized, and approved all that.  In the English colonies, the Church of England and others were very, very late coming to the anti-slavery side; by their silence and tacit approval, they encouraged the enormous misery of the slave trade for a couple of centuries. 
 
Until finally some decent-minded church people - not the leadership, oh no - of good conscience and clear vision stood up and said, No more.  This is wrong.  All men are brothers.  Nobody should be treated this way.  Enough.
 
Now, in our time, is the moment to say about gays and all the other "queer," unwanted, untolerated folk:  Enough.  No more hate.  No more death.  No more silence.
 
Nobody gets a pass anymore on the excuse, Oh well that's my belief, that's what I was taught, that's how I was raised.
 
Bullshit.
 
Churches in the Southern United States with few exceptions actively supported slavery and preached in favor of it until the Civil War finally settled the matter for good.  Bible-believing Christians all over the South in my childhood stood on Scripture in their defense of segregation, with many solid arguments taken right out of the Bible.  But that kind of thinking, even if it were built on a mountain of Bibles, is simply no longer respected, no longer accepted, by any decent-minded person.  No more so than the idea that the world is flat. 

Granny may have waved her fan and harrumphed and heaved her lace-covered bosom over the idea that the "niggers" were going to the same Heaven she was so sure of entering.  But no matter how pious and proud and prayerful Granny was, she was just dead fucking wrong on the subject.
 
And so are the hateful homophobes running some churches today, about the gay thing.  You buddy boys were wrong about the blacks, you were wrong about women, you were wrong about native Americans - and you are so damn wrong about the gays. 
 
And if there is a God, you will stand in judgment for all the death and destruction and hate you've caused, if you don't sincerely repent.  You want me to quote you chapter and verse on that?

And even if there is no God, who the fuck are you to rain on my parade, piss on my life, deny me the same liberty and happiness you enjoy?  Fuck you, and your nasty little handpuppet-god too. 

The greatest sin is to look another human being in the face and say, "You are not human, you are no part of me, you have no right to exist."  Those who do - in the name of God - are drawing damnation down upon themselves, and nobody else.

"With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."  "What you have done to the least of these my brothers, you have done to Me."  "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

What goes around, comes around.

Mixner: "Oh No You Don't!"

Reflecting on our electoral defeat in Maine last night, David Mixner writes the first of two blasts "from my gut" against gay apartheid in this country - and rips the Dems and Obama a new one.  An excerpt:

Call this campaign against us what it is - Gay Apartheid.

Refuse to allow any of our fellow Americans, President Obama or our allies to view this as a political issue who time hasn't quite come. America is in the process of creating a system of Gay Apartheid. We will not quietly sit and accept it. All over the place, this nation is creating one set of laws for LGBT Americans and another set for all other Americans. That is the classic definition of Apartheid. Either our political allies are for Gay Apartheid or against it. If they are against it, they must fight with us and no longer duck like President Obama did in Maine and Washington. There is no half way in fighting Apartheid.

Today many will claim that we must surrender the word marriage or accept some sort of separate but equal arrangement. It didn't work in the African-American struggle for freedom and it doesn't work for us. We want full equality with the same rights, benefits and privileges as all other Americans now. We say to those friends, allies and even in our own community who want to accept that second class citizenship, "Oh No You Don't!" We will accept no compromises, time-lines, incremental approaches with our freedom. Don't counsel patience as if this is a new issue. We have been fighting these ballot box bigots for over three decades. Enough.

A Moment to Remember

As frustrated as we are with the President's footdragging on gay rights issues, it's important to realize the actual progress that is being made now, step by step.  David Mixner:

Traveling to Washington for the reception at the White House for the Shepard/Byrd - Hate Crimes Bill signing, I understood the historic significance of the day. For the first time in my life and I guess anyone's life - the President of the United States was going to sign into a law a piece of positive legislation about LGBT rights. For years, I have grown used to past presidents signing such bills as DOMA and DADT or the oppressive Jessie Helms amendments from the 1980's. So the reality of such a historic first was actually hard to intellectually comprehend. . . .

First Judy and Dennis Shepard with their son Logan entered with two members of James Byrd's family (the African American man who was brutally slain by being dragged behind a truck in Jasper, Texas). They stood behind President Obama as he made his usual eloquent and powerful remarks about hate, the consequences and his zero tolerance for it. For me, while appreciating his remarks, I could not get the Shepards and Byrds out of my mind. Here were two families ripped apart by the worst brutality one can imagine and now they were honored guests in the White House and on stage with the president. The sight was so emotional and overwhelming especially as the two families hugged and co-mingled. In that moment, the hate that resulted in the deaths of their loved ones was vanquished to the dark pages of history where it belongs.

Full text of the President's remarks below the jump.  Despite what I said in an earlier post, they are well worth reading.  (Memo to Russ:  don't make smartass remarks about somebody's speech until you've actually read it.)

David Mixner: What's Next?

In the wake of the great betrayal, David shares his personal plan for what to do now in "the greatest civil rights struggle of [our] generation; I think he's right on track (emphasis mine):

-I just sent a check that I was planning on giving to the Democratic Party to the initiative battle in Maine. They will have on the ballot this November their passage of marriage equality. Let's be sure they have the resources they need early and not at the last minute. I made my contribution through ACT BLUE.

-I will not contribute to the Democratic National Party nor to any candidate who does not have an actual record of voting for marriage, against DADT, etc. No more empty promises from well-meaning politicians. I have been burned so many times I am running out of salve.

-There is no question that wise minds and cool heads have to discuss and plan a national campaign of civil disobedience.

-No more needless compromises or working for partial victories. It is time to go all out for the repeal of DOMA and DADT. The political convenience of an elected official and his calendar is not the business of a civil rights movement. The business of a civil rights movement is freedom.

-I will be watching our national organizations closely with an understanding eye to their mission. However, their mission should be our rights first and the politicians second.

-No longer will I jump up and down simply because the President or Democratic leadership just mentions they are against DOMA or for repeal of DADT. We are long past the days when we were just happy when they said the word 'gay.' I want action and I want it now.

-Will do everything I can to get as many people as possible to the March on Washington on October 11. Let us make a powerful, eloquent statement while empowering ourselves!

-Finally, I will continue to chose my words as carefully as I chose my actions. I don't want to become like our oppressors - filled with anger and derision. I want us to not only lift ourselves up into freedom but also to lift our oppressors out of their partisan hate into a better world.

On that last point, David's got a cooler head than I do - I'm one of those hotblooded Texans you've heard about - guess you boys had that figured out already, huh - but I'll try to channel my anger into a constructive path.

(Image: honk to magygraphics)

David Mixner: What Does It All Mean?

Very little:

In his remarks, the President did not even mention the recently filed Department of Justice brief supporting DOMA. He did not correct the record that the execrable brief contains. He didn't even say that the 'sloppy language of the brief' is not reflective of his values, principals or beliefs. He did not mention DADT. Finally after some initial indications that he would include the word "transgender", I did not hear it in his remarks.

Don't foget that LGBT taxes are still paying for all those straight federal employees healthcare benefits!

In many ways it is like the California Supreme Court decision: we are happy for the couples that were able to put that "Just Married" sign on their car, but unfortunately, the rest of us have been run over by a bus.

Reagan, Fallwell, Clinton: Back to the Future?

Found at Joe.My.God. David Mixner discusses Bill Clinton's treacherous turn on DADT, along with clips of Reagan and Falwell mouthing about teh homosekshuls.

Does history repeat itself? You be the judge, guys.

David Mixner Calls Shame on Obama Administration

Excerpt from a powerful statement by my good buddy David Mixner, longtime civil rights activist and respected elder of the gay tribe - you must go read the whole thing (emphasis is David's):

For two days, I have searched for an explanation, attempted to make my reading of the consequences of this horrendous document wrong and actually have sought out the opinions of a number of legal scholars. Anyway you cut it, it is a sickening document - one that this administration should be ashamed of and should disgust any friend of this community.

What in the hell were they thinking? Or is that their thinking?

There is some question among scholars as to whether this administration was required to respond to DOMA at all. Most think not, but some very respected ones feel they had to respond. However, to a person, they say that the response is way out of line, totally unnecessary and goes far beyond anything required. They all agree that if the Department of Justice felt they had to respond, a simple, few-paged brief on the very limited issue before the Federal Court would have been all that was necessary. The argument that they were required to write this all-out attack on our rights is simply bogus!

You fully need to understand the ramifications of this brief: it undercuts every conceivable argument that the LGBT community would use to fight for the repeal of DOMA. Right-wing nut cases can now just simply quote horrible stuff from this hateful brief and proclaim loudly it was filed by the Obama Justice Department. The President and his team have not only undercut this community but have damaged his own ability to repeal this hideous law given to us by President Clinton. With Democratic friends like these, God helps us.

I will not attend a fundraiser for the National Democratic Party in Washington next week when the current administration is responsible for these kind of actions. How will they ever take us seriously if we keep forking out money while they harm us. For now on, my money is going to battles within the community such as the fight in Maine or the March on Washington! I am so tired of being told by Democratic operatives to 'suck it up' because so many other profound issues are at stake. It is as if our fight for our freedom is single handedly responsible for the fate of all other issues. Bullshit. Maybe, just maybe, it is time for others to 'suck it up' for us and finally, without conditions, join our fight for our freedom!

Mixner Calls for March on Washington

Author and longtime activist David Mixner - and a friend of the Blue Truck - is calling for a show of LGBT solidarity in the face of the Administration's apparent lack of interest in gay rights:

Clearly it is time for us to gin up our efforts and stop waiting for them to hand us our God given entitlements. Enough. I really can't stomach any more being told 'not now'. As nice as it would be, no one is going to give us our freedom; we are going to have to continue to fight like hell for it. It is demeaning to us to be moved around on a political chess board like freedom is a move in some game.

We have to stop it.

Let's never forget that we are not talking about just another piece of legislation nor just an executive order. What is at stake is over 1,000 rights, benefits, privileges and protections granted to all other Americans and denied to the LGBT community. It is about the ability of those who choose to serve their country can do so in total honesty and freedom. . . . The stakes are way too high for them to tell us to wait until next year, or even until the next term. . . .

I adore President Obama but not enough to allow his team to delay my freedom for political convenience or comfort. It is unacceptable.

My plea is for our LGBT leaders to call a March on Washington for Marriage Equality this November and if they won't do it, I appeal to our young to come together and provide the leadership.

We need to come together in a display of powerful community unity to empower our young and to show the nation that anything less than full freedom is unacceptable. . . .

The promise of the Democrats being in control was great. They still can rise to greatness. It is not too late but they need our help in lifting them out of their own fears and into the light.

President Kennedy had to deal with a recession, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and so much more. However, when Dr. King and others filled the streets of cities around America and yes, Washington, DC, the president found the resources and time to stay by their sides. The time has come for us to remove the current administration's option of shrinking from leadership on this issue and to insist they rise to a new level of greatness alongside us as we all fight together for freedom. It is the only way.

And as David says in another post:

There seems to be this mistaken impression that down the road times will be better for the passage of difficult issues. Does anyone really believe that we will ever have a better combination of Democratic Congress and president than we do now? Trust me, if the time is not now, it might just be never.

Justice Has No Calendar

My good buddy David Mixner, author, political strategist, and civil rights activist, has written a great piece on DADT that you should go read. Here's an excerpt:

So in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration, we most likely have seen well over 200 gay and lesbian soldiers' careers left in tatters. Their crime? Wanting to serve their country with honor and honesty and not be forced to lie to their commanders and comrades.

The Defense Secretary has indicated it could be years before it is changed. The Speaker of the House recently indicated that it won't come up this year before Congress. President Obama is just...silent. Some of our LGBT leaders are even quietly telling elected officials that we don't have to deal with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" until the wars against terrorism are over. The way things are going, that could take us into the next century.

What do we tell these brave soldiers? That their lives and careers must be sacrificed upon the altar of political convenience? America, especially its young, has come to accept that the LGBT quest for equality is a full fledged civil rights movement and not a special interest group that can be dealt with on a political timetable.

Justice has no calendar.

. . . Yet even if we look at the politics of it, there is no better time to do it than before the end of this year. We will NEVER have the kind of powerful margin in Congress that we do now. The American people, including 40% of Born Again Christians, support open and honorable service by the LGBT community. 2010 will be an election year and members of Congress will even be more nervous.

To the president, the Congress and the leaders of the LGBT community, now is the time. Ironically, it is the right time politically, it is time to stop destroying lives and it is the right thing to do morally. How often do all these factors come together? Not often; so move toward justice and repeal this hideous and unjust remnant from the 1990's. It was wrong then and it is even more wrong now because we actually can do something about this injustice.

Obama: Blowing Off the Gays?

Tomorrow it will be six months since Election Day. I haven't forgotten the emotion, and the hope I felt when Obama said I will be a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans. Remember how he talked during the campaign?

And remember Obama's open letter to the gay community?

I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans.

But time is passing, and what is the big man doing for us? Longtime activist David Mixner asks the pertinent question:

How much longer do we give him the benefit of the doubt on LGBT issues and when do we speak strongly out? There has been no visible public movement on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" nor any action on repealing "DOMA". The president is against marriage equality although the recent Washington Post poll showed that now 49% of Americans support marriage and a huge majority in the Democratic Party supports marriage. In fact, there appears to be very little visibility of issues of concern to the LGBT community.

What do you think, guys? Is Obama living up to his promises to the gay community - or not? Has he done any more for us than McCain would have?

Should we cut him some slack, or get in his face about these things?

Mixner Nixes Warren

Longtime civil rights activist David Mixner, advisor to President Clinton on gay issues, has thought it all over carefully, and has this to say about the Warren flap:

What I can't shake is the firm belief that the invitation is just wrong, hurtful and a horrible way to begin the Obama presidency. I am not willing to use this single action as an indicator of what to expect from the entire eight years of the Obama Presidency, yet the symbolism of Warren leading off that special day is so sad for those of us who worked so hard for Obama. In one stroke, he took a moment of celebration for an oppressed minority that has suffered so much the last eight years and returned us to cold reality.

Rick Warren is not a good man. I am sure he does admirable work on global warming and HIV/AIDS but his hateful, divisive and ill-chosen words around Proposition 8 were inexcusable in that the ramifications of those words helped deny millions freedom and respect. "Unrepentant" homosexuals are not even allowed to join his Saddleback Church! This is a man of God? This is an oracle of wisdom? You know, Governor George Wallace was in some ways a populist and advocated programs for the poor. Some of his education programs and food programs were excellent. However, he was a racial bigot. He excluded African-Americans from enjoying the richness of his good work. I can't imagine that any programs he advocated would have justified him being given the leading role in any Presidential event given his views on segregation. It would simply not have happened. And the same can be said of Rick Warren: he is a religious bigot and his views on denying full rights and dignity to millions of LGBT Americans are vile. . . .

Obama has made his first huge misstep. I totally disagree with his inclusive 'big tent' explanation, especially when it makes us feel outside the tent. I am counting on Rev. Joseph Lowery that day to let the world know of our struggle. He has been a valuable friend for years. It is unlikely that anyone can censor him.

As for Obama, I am thrilled that he won over McCain. I look forward to amazing new policies on a number of fronts. I am not willing to toss him out, declare him evil or proclaim him our enemy based on a one-minute prayer. He hasn't even been sworn in yet. But given his actions with the Rev. Warren, we need some expression in appointments and policies that we are indeed part of this great adventure. And we need it pretty damn soon.

Mixner also has a brilliant suggestion: when Warren delivers his invocation, everybody should just quietly turn their backs on him: "Can you imagine the powerful message and indelible image of a thousand in silent protest refusing to look at nor acknowledge this man while he intones his hollow words?"

I love it. In fact, I hope Warren does give the invocation. It would be a powerful witness to the last gasp of bigotry and oppression in this new day that has dawned.

And sure hope this whole controversy will knock some sense into insecure-straight-boy Obama's head. You got my vote, big man; now what are you going to do with it?