In an interview at the Daily Beast, Elliot Spitzer and Kevin Sessums had some very harsh words for Barak Obama on LGBT issues. Spitzer stopped just short of calling Obama a coward. Sessums was not as reticent. Personally, I view Obama as a total liar as well as a coward. Here's a sampling of their interview:*
SESSUMS: On another legal matter, do you agree with Obama that he had no choice as president defending the law of Congress to appeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ruling that said it was unconstitutional? Or do you agree with Ted Olson that he did not have to?
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SPITZER: He didn’t have to. He should have gotten rid of it with an executive order. He is the President! He is the commander-in-chief!
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SESSUMS: And on gay marriage he is to the right of Dick Cheney and Ken Mehlman and Ted Olson. It would be almost poetic if it weren’t so sad and disheartening that on the civil rights issue of our time, our first African-American president will be seen on the wrong side of history. Again, for political reasons he’s playing with people’s lives.
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This dialogue got Jeremy Hooper at Good As You thinking and expressing feelings that I share. Like so many of us, he feels let down and, worse yet, that to our president, our lives simply do not matter. Jeremy usually expends his writing skills exposing the hate, hypocrisy and down right lunancy of the anti-gay forces. So this is a bit of a departure in some ways, but as always he states his case eloquently. Here are highlights:
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But on LGBT issues, it's been all compromise all the time! The principled push forward, a subjective path that those who value equality for all citizens have chosen to take without hesitancy or qualifiers, is typically presented by this administration as a two-footed, equally-merited, completely objective march. There's been little danger in the bold leadership seeming too tough, except with the far-right social conservatives who think watching "Modern Family" without fast forwarding through the Cam/Mitchell scenes is too pro-gay.
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The promises have been there. The speeches and proclamations have been inclusive, which does make a statement and should not be denied. But the White House has expended shockingly minimal capital on true change for LGBT rights, during a time when they should've realized that the window was always destined to close. In turn, the people who've become much more disenchanted, alienated, and/or confused are the ones who put so much hope in a president who they expected to take real world risks to accomplish what's long overdue and undeniably right.
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The mere fact that we LGBT people still have to discuss our basic humanity here in 2010 is appalling: That's a truism that expands well beyond the presidency or even politics. However, there is no person in the world -- NOT. ONE. PERSON. -- who is in a more powerful chair in terms of changing civil rights history. It's past time President Obama risk seeming arrogant on these core values issues, lest he risk seeming worthy of primary challenge in 2012.
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And that's not a threat from a detractor, either. It's a real concern from a frequent defender who still wants to believe.
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Part of me would like to still believe that Obama meant something of what he said during the campaign and in speeches here and there on LGBT rights. But experience to date suggests that desire is merely wishful thinking on my part. Sadly, I believe that LGBT lives and hopes never meant anything to the Liar-in-Chief. He only wanted our votes and our money. Many in the community likely feel like jilted lovers. But as in any failed relationship, at some point one must accept that's its over and move on. I want that worth primary challenge in 2012.
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