Dan Savage on Obama's gay ambassador

Dan reacts:

Reagan's appointment of Edward Perkins as our ambassador to South Africa—Apartheid-era South Africa, Nelson-Mandela-still-rotting-in-prison South Africa—was gutsy and bold. It made the South Africans—the ruling white South Africans—apoplectic, which was great, but it also made an important statement about American values. At the time blacks in South Africa couldn't vote or own property; they weren't considered citizens. Educational institutions, medical facilities, and public services were all strictly segregated. And America sent 'em a black ambassador....

George Bush's 2001 appointment of an openly gay man as ambassador to Romania—conservative, backwards Romania—was edgier. If Obama wants to show the same boldness and guts that Reagan did—if he wants to make a point about American values—he should appoint an openly gay man as ambassador to Russia, where anti-gay violence is tolerated/encouraged by the state. Or Saudia Arabia, where gay men are publicly executed. Or Iraq, where death squads hunt gay men.

Okay, those nations may be too large and/or too strategically important. So here's a more realistic suggestion: Obama should appoint an openly-gay man—an openly gay African American man—as ambassador to the most violently homophobic nation in the Western Hemisphere: Jamaica.

That would be audacious....

Sending an openly gay ambassador to Jamaica would be a bold and meaningful move. Sending one to New Zealand is a symbolic sop to disgruntled Democratic interest group. Wouldn't it be great if Obama had Reagan's balls?

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More bad answers from the White House on DADT

From Kerry Eleveld at the Advocate, who's been quite tenacious about dogging the White House on all of our issues. Read More...

Is it wrong of me...

...to find him kind of hot, in a trashy way? Read More...

WIth Hate crimes legislation included, Defense Authorization conference report passed House

By a vote of 281 - 146, the House of Representatives passed the conference report for the Department of Defense Authorization. This bill includes the hate crimes language, which, as you can see from the Boehner video below, was very controversial.

The Senate will consider the Defense Authorization Conference report next week.

October 12th marks the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's murder. His mother, Judy, has been the driving and inspirational force behind this legislation.

Here are the remarks from Rep. Jared Polis earlier today. A nice contrast to Boehner:
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John Boehner hates the gays so much he's willing to screw over the troops

The House is going to vote on the Defense authorization bill soon.

GOP leader John Boehner is voting against the Defense authorization bill today because it includes the hate crime legislation. So much for supporting the troops. He really hates the gays, calling the bill "radical, social policy." It offends him.
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Lt. Col. Fehrenbach wants to hear Obama give the timing for repeal of DADT

If I had to guess, I'd guess that the White House thinks that having Obama show up to speak at HRC's dinner Saturday night is enough. The DNC can then add this speech to the list of Obama's accomplishments. That might have worked in the 90s. But, most of the LGBT community has moved way past symbolism and speeches.

So, the White House may think a speech is enough, but that speech better have some specifics. The latest to weigh in with an expectation is Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, who is on the verge of getting kicked out of the military because of DADT. Fehrenbach spoke to Obama at the cocktail party back in June. He's still waiting for Obama to follow through. Via press release from SLDN:

On Saturday, President Obama is scheduled to give the keynote address to the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Washington, D.C. More than 65,000 LGBT patriots will be listening to what Obama has to say about repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the law that bars openly gay and lesbian service members from serving their country.

One of those patriots is Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, a Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) active-duty client who is set to be discharged under the law.

"The President told me in June, ‘We'll get this done,'" says Fehrenbach, referring to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." "I hope to hear from him this weekend about timing-specifically when the President plans on working with Congress to reverse the law."

Fehrenbach continues. "I understand the President has a crowded agenda, but I have been serving under this law for 16 years. I also know that ending this law in a matter of months will take the same kind of leadership and courage demonstrated by President Truman 60 years ago when he desegregated the Armed Forces."

It's bad enough that the White House thinks a speech is enough. It's worse that some in the LGBT community think that getting a cocktail party or a mention in a proclamation is enough. That's why the words of Victor Fehrenbach are important. This is about his life. And, he's just asking Obama do what Obama said he would do. Read More...

Cool new ad in WA state, and you can help buy time on TV to air it (for pretty cheap)

A great new ad from Equal Rights Washington in support of their domestic partners battle in the state. Joe has written about this a lot before, but basically Washington State passed a domestic partners law, and the bad guys are trying to repeal it. So, this is a referendum to uphold the law by voting "yes." Watch the video, and if you like it, go to Equal Rights Washington's site and you can buy specific ad time in specific cities in Washington state, to help air this ad - very cool. And it's as cheap as $17 a slot.

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New ad from No on 1 rebuts attack on Maine families from anti-gay campaign

On Monday, the anti-gay forces in Maine, led by the the Catholic Bishop Richard Malone, launched another ad filled with lies and the usual scare tactics. That ad cited the book, "Who's In a Family?," to keep pushing the false idea that schools will teach same-sex marriage. But, that book is about all families and, today, No on 1 hit back. The campaign launched a powerful rebuttal, which encouraged people to actually read the book:

The No on 1 side isn't letting any attack from the anti-gay side go unanswered. The No on 1 ActBlue page has raised $916,000. The progressive and LGBT blogs are trying to hit the goal of $1 million by October 15th. AMERICAblog's ActBlue page is here. The other side is throwing everything they've got at us. But, we've got a kick-ass campaign that is playing to win. Help us win. Read More...

President Obama's accomplishments

This list is relatively long, but not very deep when you take a closer look. This list was "presented to Stonewall Democrats by the Democratic National Committee."

For example, Obama did not extend benefits to same-sex couples of federal employees, as the list claims. Those employees were already getting those benefits, but, as the Obama administration explained it, their boss at an agency could have denied them. Also, those benefits don't include the most obvious benefit: health insurance (DOMA prevents that, they claim - though gay legal groups say this isn't true). Things like 'working with' the State Dept to end the HIV ban, when the ban hasn't been ended, is rather silly to include. (I'm working on going to Harvard and marrying rich - come back soon.) Endorsing legislation is also meaningless, if the President isn't actually lobbying for the legislation. Ditto for "calling" for the repeal of DOMA. What about actually pushing for it? Hosting a gay cocktail party to make up for defending DOMA in court and comparing us to incest and pedophilia - not quite sure that even deserves to be on this list. Releasing a Pride proclamation? Seriously - this is news? And coming soon: More working with Congress, but not actually pushing them to do anything.

I'm sorry, but we're almost 1/4 of the way into this administration and they have done nothing on any of their main promises to our community. The year is 2009, not 1993. Rehashing things that Bill Clinton already did 16 years ago is not progress. Read More...