Cold Comfort...

...for a community that revels in visibility battles over prescriptive language, Obama's backroom maneuvers give LGBT groups nothing to fundraise about, no cause célèbre to swaddle in a gay flag and nurture as a victim of intolerance.

Not your daddy.

(HP)

"Obama added that he was working with the Pentagon, as well as Congress, to end 'Don't Ask Don't Tell.' He called this period a 'transition' toward that end but said it had to be done pragmatically, so the new policy works in the long-term."

— Obama, speaking to LGBT movement leaders

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Too many LGBT people will be left feeling unsatisfied and clammy after repeal of DOMA and DADT... after passage of ENDA and the hate crimes bill gives them no more reason to feel good about themselves than they already have.

"We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
Since there is no elegant ratification of an amendment to the Constitution, one reemphasizing that "This Means Everybody!"... what other process is there but incremental passage of legislation?

What is there besides successive stages that will never really satisfy a community that clings to a pseudo-mythology regarding the glorious day daddy will say it's okay to be gay and everybody listens?

Unless the LGBT community learns to celebrate the occasional incremental success as raucously as it laments injustice and occasional setbacks, there will never be any feeling of accomplishment this generation can internalize as self-identification with citizenship.

"Gibbs did emphasize that when Obama faces re-election in 2012, DADT will have been repealed."


There will be no one event, after which the gays can say, "Now, we're accepted."

Obama is saying something when he tells us it's not for him to tell you to be patient...

"...anymore than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago.

"But I say this: We have made progress, and we will make more. And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises that I made, but by promises that my administration keeps."
The LGBT community is expecting an emancipation proclamation that will make the world a safe place to be gay all at once.... and it's not going to happen. It can't happen, and holding Obama to that expectation is unfair to him and the people you convince that such a situation is even possible.

Celebrate the incremental successes, the repeal of DOMA and DADT... passage of ENDA and the hate crimes bill, because no single advance can deliver what we're looking for all at once.

"I'm not sure we should be applauding the president for passing the buck, however eloquently he is while he does so."
— Dan Savage, sex advice columnist



LGBT leadership will sell its community short if it should never celebrate until the battle is completely won.

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