President Obama, fierce advocate of rousing speeches and the status quo.

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It’s been difficult to conceal our disappointment since President Obama took office ten months ago.

Yes, you read that correctly. And, no, I have not suffered recent head trauma.

Obama, self-proclaimed ‘fierce advocate for equality’, courted us well during the campaign, referring to us in speeches, even naming the multiple ways in which our state and federal governments discriminate against us. Despite his support for civil unions (as opposed to marriage equality), Obama became the rainbow candidate by default, his rhetoric leading us to believe that he understands on a logical and constitutional, if not empathic, level what needs to be done. Promises to repeal DOMA and DADT were made, as were promises to pass the Matthew Shepard Act and an LGB and T inclusive ENDA.

In the ten months since Obama was sworn in, we’ve listened closely, waiting for his first bold move enacting any of the promises he made to us. The bottom line? We’re still waiting. For a President so emblematic of the Civil Rights movement, so iconified through grassroots agitation, Obama has proven himself to be a fierce advocate of the status quo.

First, he selected Pastor Rick Warren, known anti-gay California megachurch leader, to deliver the inaugural invocation. This on the heels of Proposition 8, which Warren endorsed via the megaphone of his pulpit. Not to worry, we were told; the Obama administration also invited openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson to deliver the inaugural prayer at the pre-inaugural festivities. Funny how his was the only speech not carried live by HBO due to so-called technical difficulties.

Historically, we are a forgiving bunch, so we gave Obama the benefit of the doubt and waited some more. It wasn’t long, however, before we scratched our heads again.

The White House issued, at best, paltry responses to the landmark wins for marriage equality in Iowa and Vermont. Example?  “The President respects the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage. Although President Obama supports civil unions rather than same-sex marriage, he believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive protection under the law.” Notice the lack of the word “equal” in the part about protection. Following protests by the LGBT activist community, the WH revised their statement to include the word “equal”. Too little, too late. And what the heck happened to the federal action of repealing DOMA? Still, we knew Obama supported equality because he told us so. ‘He just believes it’s an issue best tackled by the states and he used to teach constitutional law, so he would know. We’ll wait some more.’

In June, we met with the most degrading insult of all. The Obama Administration’s Department of Justice had filed a brief defending DOMA. (Note: for those who don’t know, DOMA is the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Clinton, which limits marriage to a man and a woman at the federal level and prevents our legal marriage in Iowa from being recognized in our home state of Wisconsin.) ‘What? What kind of hypocrisy is this?!’, we wondered. ‘This can’t be! Obama promised to repeal DOMA!’‘. In fact, it was true. And worse, the brief cited legal precedent likening same-sex marriage to incest.

It was around that time that we stopped waiting and started to feel angry.

So did the LGBT activists.

His defenders were at the ready, though, and reminded us that Obama entered office with a plate more full than most Presidents. He barely had time to break in his leather, swivel chair in the Oval Office before going head-to-head with the economy, two wars, and health care, issues that effect ALL Americans. Not to mention teabaggers and birthers and wingnut generalists. ‘He’ll get to you,’ his defenders assured us. ‘Be patient.’

(By the way, to anyone who’s ever said this, bite me.)

More and more, LGBT Americans began to pay attention. Anger churned over the Obama Administration’s complete 180 on even acknowledging us, let alone fiercely advocating on our behalf. In recent months, contemporary activists have blogged their nuts off. Activists from the Harvey Milk era came out of the woodwork. Gay families posted youtube videos and visibility increased at every level. The WH press reporter from The Advocate continued to implore Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for substantive answers on DOMA and DADT (and he continued to evade her).

The first ever National Equality March was planned for October 11, 2009.  The same day as the annual Presidential Cup golf event in California. We held our breath when we learned that President Obama would not attend the golf event, but instead would speak at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner as an unofficial precursor to the National Equality March.

‘Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere.’

Still, we awaited the speech with trepidation as the HRC is reputed more for kissing ass than kicking butt regarding LGBT issues. We watched the speech online, biting our bottom lips and nestling into each other to quell our anxiety. Here it is so you can watch it yourself.

 

I confess to being moved by this speech. He hit all the relevant points in his customary thundering, musical  cadence. I quivered, I tingled and, when he talked about the America where I’ll be able to walk down the street holding Jenn’s hand, a tear might have leaked out involuntarily.

‘THIS is the man I elected!’ I said to Jenn.

Then it ended.

He boomed ‘God Bless America’ and I felt used.

See, this was a speech. Words delivered by a man so powerful and so charismatic that the audience to which he spoke had no alternative than to be rapt, if not enamored. With each minute that passed after it ended, and particularly as we dissected it over the next 24 hours, we felt more and more duped.

Some things to consider:

This speech aired only on cable news networks on a Saturday night. A fierce advocate would have delivered it on the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), from the White House, on a weeknight, to mainstream America.

This speech reiterates promises we’ve heard before. Some of the lines echoed almost verbatim sections of his campaign stump speech. A fierce advocate would have woven in personal stories, as he did so successfully with the economy during his campaign and as he’s doing now with health care.

This speech offered no new information, no timelines, no plans. A fierce advocate would’ve vowed more than to say he’ll sign the Matthew Shepard Act, a law eleven years in the making,  if and when it reaches his desk; a fierce advocate would have vowed to use the bully pulpit to pass an all-inclusive ENDA and to repeal DOMA and DADT.

Better yet, a fierce advocate would have introduced his own bills on DOMA and DADT.

At the very least, a fierce advocate would have announced that he will sign an executive order immediately stopping all dishonorable discharges from the military due to DADT.

 This speech, with all its flourish and its carefully lifted soundbites, did nothing to usher in equality. As a stand alone occurence at a black tie affair on a Saturday night, this speech reached barely a fraction of the people it could have reached.

Let me ask you this.

Did you watch the speech before seeing it here? Did you know about it? Did you know about the National Equality March? Did you know about the DOJ brief or the White House’s sad, sad responses to two of the greatest civil rights milestones of our time before reading about them here?

If you spend vast amounts of time trolling the internets for political tidbits, maybe you did. If you’re LGB or T, and this speech impacts you directly, maybe you did.

I’m guessing that, unless you fit into one of those two categories, this is the first you’ve heard about the facts I’ve itemized in this post.

The National Equality March drew 250,000 Americans who support equality. Not merely “tens of thousands” as the major networks quipped in their obligatory three second statements of fact the next morning. A quarter million people in one place at one time, marching for equality, not to mention the millions of Americans unable to attend, us included, who attended satellite marches, watched CNN all weekend, or blogged the rest of their nuts off.

Catch that? Millions of Americans.

President Obama, whatever your reasons for dawdling,  the jig is up.

True, the burden to be fierce rests with us, also, and we’re holding up our end of the bargain.

True, you have delivered more than your predecessors by appointing openly gay individuals to federal posts, but given what you haven’t delivered, those individuals cannot serve openly in the military, marry, protect their children, or provide their partner with full health and retirement benefits.

We cannot walk down the streets holding hands in your America.

The time has come for bold action, follow-through, and a true, unpandering fierceness for what is long overdue.

Equality.

Now.

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Filed under LGBT, Politics, Proposition 8, civil rights, crazymakers, equality, gay, obama