That's What Friends Are For

I'm not sure why I haven't felt like posting, or doing much of anything constructive or productive the past couple of days. Doesn't matter. This brought a smile to my face tonight (via):



Is there anyone with access to Obama who will explain to him that many gay people don't trust him, including (especially) gay people who voted for him? I giggled when he protested to the chanting activists that Boxer is their ally, and he's their ally, and he wants to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. He wanted a public option for the health care reform bill too -- hell, once upon a time he wanted a single-payer system. Who knows what he'll be serving up by the time a supposed DADT repeal reaches Congress? (Remember, DADT was Clinton's follow-up to his pledge to lift the ban on gays in the military. Result: the numbers of people expelled from the military for being queer increased.)

But let me just stick to gay issues. During the campaign Obama pandered to homophobic churches by getting an "ex-gay" preacher to entertain them. He used the word "proselytizing" with reference to gay people in an interview with the gay press. (To be scrupulously fair, he was talking about a gay man he'd known who "wasn't proselytizing all the time", but that would seem to imply that he thinks that significant numbers of gay men are.) He invited the antigay preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. His Department of Justice defended the Defense of Marriage Act against a court challenge, with derisory damage control afterward. He has repeatedly and clearly expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage, in terms that make it clear he doesn't understand the issues involved. He ignored, and his ally Barney Frank sneered at, the Equality March on Washington last fall.

As long as gay people have an ally like Obama in the White House, I suspect that Don't Ask Don't Tell will be around for the foreseeable future. Those who want it repealed should keep up the pressure. I think it's obvious from his expression and body language in this clip that he was very displeased that the proles were harshing his vibe, but it's about time people from his base started doing that.

I notice that all this took place at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser -- more than heckling, Obama needs to feel a pinch in the party's money department. But don't worry, in 2012, we'll have "Surely, comrades, you do not wish Sarah Palin back?" That'll keep the voters in line.