Obama Measures Falls Short

In a possible effort to try to avoid an embarrassing melt down at a LGBT fundraiser dinner for the DNC President Obama signed a memorandum to extend limited benefits to LGBT federal employees and their partners. While a step in the right direction, it is merely a measly crumb compared to candidate Obama's lofty campaign promises. No matter what he does after the fact, the DOJ brief in support of DOMA pretty much has expressed what the Obama administration truly thinks of LGBT Americans: our marriages are equivalent to incest. Rightly so, the anti-Obama and anti-DNC fall out continues to unfold. Here's one example via the InsiderOut blog group that I belong to:

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Bruce Bastian, a gay businessman and prominent donor who lives in Utah and is on the list of special invitees, not only said he no longer plans to attend the fundraiser, but also that he no longer plans to donate to the Democratic Party as a whole. “I will continue to support certain congressmen, congresswomen and senators whom I believe will continue to fight for our rights, but I don’t think blanket donations to the Democratic Party right now are justified, at least not in my book,” he said.

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Bastian, a major donor to many LGBT groups, said he sent an e-mail to the DNC on Wednesday saying he wouldn’t attend the event “because of the remarks on DOMA.” He found the filing “very offensive.” “The administration has said they have to support the federal government’s stance,” he said. “But in the brief, they go way beyond where they need to go to just defend DOMA. They basically go to terminology and language that you would expect from the Bush administration, not the Obama administration.”

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Bastian said the brief was the “tipping point” for him in his perception for how the Democratic Party supports LGBT issues. “The LGBT community raised a lot of money in support for Obama, and, I think he has to have the courage — well, not just him — but, I think the Democratic Party now has to have the courage to fight back, and when they do, they’ll have my support,” he said. Bastian said he would change his mind on the donations and his attendance if there were action on passing hate crimes legislation in the Senate and movement to repeal DOMA and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

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Bastian is but one of many prominent LGBT political donors who have decided to opt out of attending the big DNC fundraiser on June 25, 2009. I applaud these principled decisions and believe that a boycott of the fundraiser is the proper course of action. Obama and the Democrat Party need to be shown that they cannot depend on LGBT support and money if they refuse to deliver on LGBT rights initiatives. Here are highlights from America Blog on this point:

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I contacted top gay blogger Andy Towle today to ask if he'd be attending the big gay fundraiser the DNC was holding later this month with VP Biden as the special guest. Andy was on a list I'd seen of already committed attendees. Andy told me that he had already contacted the DNC to say that he wouldn't be attending at this time (yet another reason we like Andy and his blog). The DNC had planned to raise a lot of money from gay A-listers by coinciding this fundraiser with the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. Instead, the DNC may be about to witness Stonewall 2.0.

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Andy's news comes on the heel of word that veteran gay advocate, and longtime friend of Bill Clinton, David Mixner is pulling out the fundraiser as well. David wrote one hell of an essay this weekend about the hateful DOMA brief the Obama administration submitted late Thursday night.

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Here is a very long excerpt from David's essay: You fully need to understand the ramifications of this brief: it undercuts every conceivable argument that the LGBT community would use to fight for the repeal of DOMA. Right-wing nut cases can now just simply quote horrible stuff from this hateful brief and proclaim loudly it was filed by the Obama Justice Department. The President and his team have not only undercut this community but have damaged his own ability to repeal this hideous law given to us by President Clinton. With Democratic friends like these, God helps us.

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President Obama, even Dick Cheney is for marriage equality. Please don't try to placate us with actions already taken 16 years ago by President Clinton. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might be able to help you find the way since she has already written a policy for your approval ending discrimination in her agency. This community is no longer interested in hearing one more time your personal beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman. We want you to rise above your own beliefs and hear you articulate a powerful vision of full equality for LGBT Americans.

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As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words and at this point in time the Obama administration's actions in supporting DOMA tell us all we need to know.

Brad Pitt and Bruce Bastian Making Donations to Stop Proposition 8

I have always thought Bad Pitt was gorgeous (he was so hot as Louis in Interview with a Vampire - see photo at left), but he's more than that based on various political positions and pro-gay statements he has made in the past. Now, he is putting his money where his mouth is and has announced that he is making a sizable donation to fight passage of California Proposition 8. Hopefully, his courage will both prompt other celebrities to make contributions and perhaps make others to think about the cruelty that Proposition 8 would inflict upon same sex couples. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times:

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Brad Pitt announced Wednesday that he's donating $100,000 to fight California's Proposition 8, a November ballot initiative that would eliminate same-sex couples' right to marry."Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8," the actor said in a statement. Pitt's donation marks the largest thus far to the anti-Prop. 8 campaign by an A-list celebrity.

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Political strategist Chad Griffin, who is helping coordinate efforts in the entertainment industry to defeat the controversial initiative, said he is hopeful that the move will prompt others to get involved.

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Making a far larger contribution is Bruce Bastian, WordPerfect co-founder and a former Mormon and openly gay man, who said he, too, would be making a $1 million donation to defeat Proposition 8. Bastian said he was was prompted to make the donation by the Latter Day Saints Church a/k/a Mormon Church's heavy involvement in supporting Proposition 8. Here are some highlights from The Salt Lake Tribune:

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With the LDS Church prodding its members to give of their "means and time" to help eliminate same-sex marriage in California, many Utahns have funneled cash to the Golden State's Proposition 8 campaign. And not all of them favor the constitutional amendment.

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Orem resident and WordPerfect co-founder Bruce Bastian has trumped their efforts - almost tenfold. He gave a whopping $1 million to the Human Right Campaign's "No on Prop. 8" committee. Bastian, a former Mormon and openly gay man, said he, too, was prompted by the LDS Church to donate - but to the other side. He gave a more modest $5,000 check to the cause in May, but upped the ante in July after the church issued a formal statement, backing the ballot measure.

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"The LDS Church has no business stepping their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter," Bastian said. "Constitutions are meant to protect minorities - not to take rights away from people."

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The Web site, Mormonsfor8.com, tracks contributions to ProtectMarriage.com . . . So far, the Web site has determined that about a third of ProtectMarriage.com's donors are LDS, with their contributions totaling close to $5 million. "If we could identify every Mormon, I think that probably 85 to 90 percent of the donors would be Mormon," said Cedar City resident Nadine Hansen, creator of Mormonsfor8.com.

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Thankfully, Pitt and Bastian understand the concept of separation of church and state envisioned by the U. S. Constitution even if the LDS Church does not. As I have said many times, anti-gay initiatives like Proposition 8 are not about "protecting marriage" but rather about punishing LGBT citizens for not knuckling under to Christianist and LDS religious beliefs.