Thursday, May 28, 2009

Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center Blasts Obama

I have been on Barack Obama's case a number of times due to his failure to take steps to deliver on any of his campaign promises to LGBT Americans. In fact, to date Obama's lack of honesty is on a par with the Chimperator's promise of "compassionate conservatism." Hence my new photo for Obama at left which shows him beginning to morph into the Chimperator. Now it seems others are about out of patience with Obama as well for his disingenuous lies. A case in point is the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center which blasted Obama in a it sent to Obama yesterday. Here is the text of the letter via America Blog (the emphasis is mine):
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Dear President Obama:
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Welcome to California, Mr. President.
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I welcome you with a heavy heart because of the California Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Prop. 8, relegating same-sex couples to second class status and denying us that most noble promise of America, “liberty and justice for all.”
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You are arriving in Los Angeles on the heels of emotional demonstrations throughout California and our nation and your silence at such a time speaks volumes. LGBT people and our allies have the ‘audacity to hope” for a country that treats us fairly and equally and for a President with the will to stand up for those ideals. From you we expect nothing less.
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We know the country faces many serious challenges and we have strived to be patient. We’ve waited for the slightest sign you would live up to your promise to be a “fierce advocate” for our equal rights while watching gay and lesbian members of the armed forces, who have never been more needed, get discharged from the military. And so far you have done nothing. No stop loss order. No call to cease such foolish and discriminatory actions that make our nation less safe.
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You pledged to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Mr. President. You promised to support a “complete repeal” of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and pledged to advocate for legislation that would give same-sex couples the 1,100+ federal rights and benefits we are denied, including the same rights to social security benefits. You said “Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples.” What of those promises, Mr. President?
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Your commitment to repeal DOMA has been removed from the White House website. Your promise to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was removed and then replaced with a watered-down version. And in the aftermath of yesterday’s California Supreme Court ruling, you have remained silent while your press secretary summarily dismisses questions about the issue.
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We not only need to hear from our President, we need his action. And we need it now. We need your words, Mr. President. But we also need your deeds. We expect you to fulfill the promises you made to us. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.” Do not delay, Mr. President. The time for action is now.
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Sincerely,
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Lorri L. Jean
Chief Executive Officer
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
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Unfortunately, I expect Obama to utterly ignore this letter and other calls for action. Obama is a slick politician and apparently doesn't mean anything he says. I regret that I fell for his BS and do not intend to be duped again by him. He has lost my support unless and until he stops the fiddling while Rome burns and delivers on his campaign promises.

1 comment:

Christopher Flournoy said...

Michael, I too am disappointed at the lack of action from the president, but let us not forget that "Rome is indeed burning" (I speak to you from ground zero in the firestorm, Detroit, Michigan). I am not ready to dismiss the president as a crafty liar... that he has kept silent on our issues while tackling others that would make any other president of recent memory blanch, says to me that "we" are still on his agenda.

Yes! We should continue to call him out on his failure to act, but we should also give him time to prove us wrong. I do not believe that he will sell us out in the end. No president in modern times has had as much to deal with as Barack Obama... his is a heavy load and as painful as "our" grievences are to bear, they pale in comparison to what we have endured in the past and what he must deal with "first" for the greater good of us all.

Your avid reader and friend -- A Proud, Out, "Thinking Republican" (who voted for Obama), who planned to marry in California...