Obama Campaign Launches LGBT Shake Down, I Mean Outreach, Effort

Call me cynical, but we knew this was coming:  the Obama campaign has launched an "outreach" effort to the LGBT community.  This of course, translate to "shake down" effort by any other name.  Obama wasn't reaching out when he could have done more to speak out against Amendment One.  Likewise, he wasn't reaching out to the LGBT community when he refused to sign an ENDA like executive order that would have been binding on federal government contractors.  I'm sure readers will say, "but Obama came out for marriage equality."  Yes he did, but what's the practical effect?  Absolutely nothing from a legal perspective.  And cynics believe he took the final plunge only because of the backlash following the North Carolina vote and the reluctance of LGBT donors to write big checks.  Also troubling is the fact that out-going do-nothing HRC president Joe Solmonese is co-chairing the effort.  MetroWeekly has coverage on the "outreach" launch.  Here are highlights:

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese was on double duty today, serving as the main speaker on the launch of the Obama for America campaign's LGBT outreach today. Earlier this year, Solmonese had been announced as one of the co-chairs for the campaign for President Obama's re-election, which HRC endorsed in 2011.  .   .   .  Solmonese's HRC successor, Chad Griffin, is slated to start at the nation's largest LGBT political organization, headquartered in DC, on June 12.

 

Much of the call's opening, in which Solmonese was joined by campaign spokesman Clo Ewing and campaign national LGBT vote director Jamie Citron, was focused on a detailing of Obama's accomplishments in his first term, from this past week's support for marriage equality to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to Obama's recording of an "It Gets Better" video.

Metro Weekly led off the question-and-answer portion of the call with a look forward, asking what effort there will be during the campaign to lay out a plan for LGBT equality aims in the second term of an Obama administration.

Solmonese responded generally, talking about collective decision-making regarding priorities, but did specifically mention the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as "landmark issues" that remain to be addressed.

The article covers additional issues, but it seems Solmonese was at his best mealy mouthed double speak self.  Personally, I'd rank picking Solmonese as co-chair of the effort right up with picking  Charlotte for the DNC convention site.

The campaign's LGBT specific web page is here.    Over all, I am left feeling conflicted.  On the one hand, a vote for Romney is a vote for a Christofascist controlled administration.  On the other, there's a less hostile administration that truly only gets concerned about the LGBT community when subjected to great pressure and in need of money and votes.