Where's Our 'Fierce Advocate?

Like many other LGBT bloggers I have been less than thrilled with Barack Obama's delivery - or should I say total lack thereof - on LGBT issues notwithstanding all the grand rhetoric during the campaign to secure our votes, money and labors for his campaign. I continue to have the sick feeling that perhaps we were cynically played for suckers. Not only has Obama been missing in action when it comes to moving forward, but now even the White House website has been waffling back and forth when it comes to LGBT civil rights issues. As John Aravosis noted on Friday at America Blog:

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It's been a disturbing 24 hours. But the White House has just updated its Web site to indicate that it continues to support the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

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There was some concern that the Obama administration was backing off the President's repeated promise to lift the ban after the White House Web site yesterday changed its commitment to "repeal" DADT to a promise to only "change" the policy in a "sensible way." This led many observers, including the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, to worry whether the White House was backing off of its repeated commitment to, as President Obama himself promised, "fully repeal" the DADT policy.

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The White House Web site has now been updated, again, and the "repeal" language is back. And while it's couched in the same terms about being done in a "sensible way," I would assume that all administration policy is implemented in a "sensible way," so this should have no bearing on whether President Obama will keep his promise to fully repeal the ban.

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I hate to say it, but all of us need to constantly pressure the White House to remind Obama that we expect him to deliver as promised. Yes, there are a lot of issues in front of him, but delivering on LGBT equality is one of the steps needed to undo the tragic last 8 years of misrule by the Chimperator and his Christianist puppet masters. If Obama will not move forward on LGBT issues for the right reason, then he needs to be prodded along by the knowledge that there will be adverse consequences if he doesn't deliver. We all might further add that we're more than a little sick and tired of him listening to pathological liar and blow hard Rick Warren.

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In yesterday's Washington Post, Richard Socarides, former special assistant to President Bill Clinton, has some suggestions for how Obama should proceed to move forward on LGBT issues and take advantage of the current disarray of the Republican Party. Here are some highlights from Socarides' column:

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In December, while trying to quiet the furor over his invitation of Rick Warren to take part in his inauguration, Barack Obama reminded us that he had been a "consistent" and "fierce advocate of equality for gay and lesbian Americans." But at the end of its first 100 days, his administration has been neither.

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What makes this especially disappointing is that it comes during a crisis-driven "change moment" in our country's history that not only cries out for leadership but presents a particularly good climate for making substantial progress on gay equality.

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But recent victories on gay marriage, a youth-driven paradigm shift in public opinion and the election of our first African American president make this a uniquely opportune moment to act. I understand that the president has his hands full saving the economy. But across a broad spectrum of issues -- including women's rights, stem cell research and relations with Cuba -- the Obama administration has shown a willingness to exploit this change moment to bring about dramatic reform. So why not on gay rights? Where is our New Deal?

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It is the memory of 1993's gays-in-the-military debacle (and a desire never to repeat it) that has both the president's advisers and policy advocates holding back, waiting for some magical "right time" to move boldly. This is a bad strategy. President Obama will never have more political capital than he has now, and there will never be a better political environment to capitalize on. People are distracted by the economy and war, and they are unlikely to get stirred up by the right-wing rhetoric that has doomed efforts in the past.

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And people are willing to try new approaches. The court ruling legalizing gay marriage in Iowa represents a real opening, an opportunity to get "undecideds" to take another look not only at gay marriage but at gay rights in general. As Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin remarked, many Americans may be asking themselves, "If the [Iowa] Supreme Court said this, maybe I have to think anew." Here is what Obama should do to seize this opportunity:

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First, he should start talking about gay rights again, the way he did during the campaign.

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Second, he should move swiftly, as he promised during the campaign, to help secure passage of the bill now moving through Congress imposing new federal penalties for anti-gay hate crimes, as well as legislation allowing gays to serve in the military. Ten years have passed since Matthew Shepard was killed. We have endured 15 years of "don't ask, don't tell" discrimination. We have waited long enough.

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Third, he should appoint a high-ranking, respected, openly gay policy advocate to oversee government efforts toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. Give this person access to policymakers, similar to what has been done on urban policy and for people with disabilities. This is especially important because, unlike Clinton, who had gay friends such as David Mixner, Roberta Achtenberg and Bob Hattoy around to nudge him, Obama has no high-profile gay senior aides with a history in the gay rights movement.

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Finally, Obama should champion comprehensive, omnibus federal gay civil rights legislation, similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation and granting a basic umbrella of protections in employment, education, housing and the like (rather than the existing piecemeal approach to legislation). Such a bill should also provide for federal recognition of both civil unions and marriages as they are authorized by specific states.

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Does Obama have the guts to take such bold action? Did he mean any of the bold statements he made on LGBT issues during the campaign? The only way we will find out is to hold his feet to the fire - as well as those of our representatives in the House and Senate - and demand action with a clear message that our votes, money and campaign efforts should not be taken as guaranteed in the future.