Thursday, October 15, 2009

Great president -- if he'd do something for us

President Obama spoke at a Human Rights Campaign dinner last weekend. HRC is the largest gay lobbying organization. The reactions to Obama's speech tend to offer up two basic ideas.

1. This is the first time a president has spoken at such a dinner and offered this kind of support. There is plenty of video of him (and you can watch the 20-some minute speech at this link or many others) that will be featured in his opponents campaign ads in 2010 and 2012 (and, yes, I know Obama himself is not on the ballot in 2010). The sight of the president saying all this will be a help to the politically unaware gay kid in Oklahoma. It was a great speech.

2. This sounded like Candidate Obama's speech. When is he actually going to do something for us? Yeah, the hate crimes bill will be on his desk soon, but he has a bully pulpit that he isn't (at least doesn't appear to be) using to get employment non-discrimination, military non-discrimination, repeal of defense of marriage, federal domestic partnerships, and sponsorship of foreign partners passed. Some of these he can do through executive orders until Congress acts. So why doesn't he?

Gays aren't vampires -- they show up on TV. Here's Jon Stewart complaining that Fox TV avoided reporting on the National Equality March.

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