I wasn't able to watch the whole inaugural parade, so I had to rely on this link to see the Lesbian and Gay Band Association pass in front of the presidential viewing stand.
John Stewart on the Inauguration and with an interview with Gene Robinson. Now that we have a black president, is a gay or lesbian president possible? Yes, says Robinson.
It is good to say and write President Obama. I never wrote it that way for Bush because he was never my president. I didn't want to dignify him with the term. In his first days in office President Obama has shown how different he is from his predecessor, all for the better. These include:
* Pay freeze for White House staff earning more than $100K.And all that was on day one.
* Ban on executive branch employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists.
* Instructions for his administration to operate under principles of openness, transparency, and engaging citizens in their government.
* Instructions that only a former president (and not anyone else) can assert executive privilege for keeping records private.
* Ordering the Attorney General and White House Legal Council to review all claims of executive privilege.
Day two included:
* Ordering Gitmo to be closed in a year.Yeah, some claimed we got great intel out of torture. Others respond saying both are you sure? and great intel probably isn't worth the hit on our national reputation. Yes, it feels good to call him President Obama.
* Ordering the CIA to follow the US Army Field Manual on interrogation (no torture).
* Ordering the CIA to close overseas "black site" prisons.
Bishop Gene Robinson gave an invocation before last Sunday's We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Alas, his prayer was not included in HBO's broadcast of the event with Robinson praying at 2:25 and the cameras rolling at 2:30. There was a lot of finger pointing afterward with the Obama Presidential Inauguration Committee finally accepting the blame. Of course, that made gays less pleased with the new president.
I think the prayer itself is quite good. It takes deep understanding to include such phrases as:
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
I also pray the last paragraph: Please, God, keep the new president safe.
The full text is on the New Hampshire Episcopal Church website.
In contrast, Warren's prayer got cool reviews.
I wanted to view the inauguration at the Affirmations Gay and Lesbian Center in Ferndale. It didn't quite work out that way. One reason was mine. Though various news sources said the ceremony is at noon they didn't clarify that the actual oath is supposed to be administered by then (it was a few minutes late) and quite a bit happens before then. Affirmations said their festivities started at 11:00 but I figured I could be there about 11:30 with no problem. The other reason was traffic. I encountered a backup at the I-96 to Southfield Fwy interchange and it took me a nearly 20 minutes to get through it. By then I decided to just go home (much closer than the center) and watch by myself. I had NPR on while sitting on the freeway, so heard the procession of dignitaries. I got my TV on just before the actual ceremony started at about 11:45.
Not to be a pessimist, but I don't see a gay president as possible in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteGene Robinson carefully did not say how soon we might get a gay president. It indeed might take a while. What he meant was that now that we've broken the color barrier it is not that much of a stretch to also break the gender barrier and the orientation barrier.
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