Obama on Gay Civil Rights

Throughout this whole semester I had been hearing a lot about the promises our current president, Barack Obama, made to the LGBT community before he was elected. I wasn’t sure of all that he had promised so I decided to do some research. Something that I found was this very interesting clip. In it Obama speaks for gay rights and about what he plans to do for the LGBT community. I recommend you take a look at it.

DADT Update: DOD Report Out In 7 Days; Discharges Ceased; TV Ad Out

There have been multiple developments in the fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" recently.

The Defense Department has (barely) bowed to political pressure by agreeing to release its now-famous study of the impacts of open military service by LGBT soldiers on "unit cohesion, military readiness and effectiveness, recruiting and retention and family readiness" one day early, next Tuesday, November 30.

The Pentagon also announced that ever since Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued new procedures that require a DADT discharge to be approved by one of a handful of top military officers on October 21, no LGBT people have been "separated" from the military in the last month.

Recent polls have begun to show declines from the massive support for repealing the military's discriminatory DADT policy. In the last few days, a Gallup poll has been released indicating only 56% of Americans think passing DADT repeal in the Senate's lame-duck session is important or very important (compared to 60% who feel that way about passing the DREAM Act).

Today, the Palm Center had the above television ad touting the lack of consequences to open military service experienced by our NATO allies currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan rejected by Fox News.

I believe that the Obama Administration will deliver on its promise to have DADT repeal accomplished by the end of 2010.

Do you?

Cross-posted from The Mad Professah Lectures

Obama's stance on LGBT Rights

 I thought that it would be interesting to examine what Obama has done for the LGBT community and what he intends to achieve. In this article, Obama's perspectives on issues relating to civil justice are analyzed. So far, Obama has been successful in the passing of anti-hate crime Matthew Shepard Act but many problems are still prevalent in society. I thought what was most interesting was his disposition on "don't ask don't tell"

From the White House Website: President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

This would undoubtedly be a great feat for his administration to accomplish but just how hopeful should we be?

Obama Breaks Clinton's Record of 140 Openly Gay Presidential Appointees

Amanda Simpson, first openly transgender
Presidential appointee in history

Less than two years into his first Presidential term, Barack Obama has broken Bill Clinton's record of the number of appointees to the federal government with over 150 openly LGBT people in his administration so far.

Back in the 1990s when Clinton was president he made history by appointing the first openly gay person to a position requiring United States Senate approval, Roberta Achtenberg, to be assistant to the secretary for Housing and Urban Development. Noted homphobic Senator, Jesse Helms (R-NC), opposed the nomination and called Achtenberg a "damned lesbian" and "militant extremist" while he tried to stall and kill the appointment.

Now Obama has reached a historic level of 150 openly LGBT appointees in less than 2 years when it took Clinton 8 years to reach 140 openly gay and lesbian appointees.

From the Los Angeles Times report:

Gay activists, among Obama's strongest supporters, had hoped he would be the first to appoint an openly gay Cabinet secretary. While that hasn't happened — yet — Obama did appoint the highest-ranking gay official ever when he named John Berry as director of the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the nation's 1.9 million federal workers.

Other prominent names include Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Fred Hochberg, chairman of the Export-Import Bank. Obama also named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department. And David Huebner, ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, is the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history.

White House spokesman Shin Inouye confirmed the record number, saying Obama has hired more gay officials than the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations combined. He said Obama "is proud that his appointments reflect the diversity of the American public."

"He is committed to appointing highly qualified individuals for each post," Inouye said. "We have made a record number of openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) appointments and we are confident that this number will only continue to grow."

Progress takes time, and occurs in different areas (administrative instead of legislative) at different rates.

Cross-posted from The Mad Professah Lectures.

Obama Says It Gets Better

Obama's BFF Valerie Jarrett Defends Administration Against Dan Choi

Why Obama isn't acting quicker for LGBT rights

Obama has been under a lot of heat for not carrying out his campaign promises to the LGBT community. According to PolitiFact.com, Obama made five promises about gay and lesbian rights:

1. Push for the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act. (promise kept)

2. Include sexual orientation and gender identity in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (not yet)

3. Encourage states to treat same-sex couples equally when it comes to family and adoption

4. Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (reports as "in the works")

5. Work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (not yet)

Out of the five, he's only fully carried out one, and the LGBT community and their supporters are not very happy with him. 

This article, though, explains why Obama might be more hesitant to forcefully and enthusiastically support minority rights. It says that in the past, presidents would have faced major consequences for supporting minority rights; they would not be reelected or would lose party seats in Congress. FDR, for example, refused to support anti-lynching laws and anti-poll tax laws because he didn't want to lose support in the South. 

In class, we just read about how Clinton made numerous statements of support for the gay community, promising that with him, they'll get the rights they deserve. When he was finally elected into office, though, it took a long time for him to act, and when he did, he compromised with his opposition and upset his gay and ally supporters. After reading the chapter about him in Out of the Past, we learned that he did so because he knew that it was politically impossible for him to fully carry out his promises. Congress was becoming increasingly likely to override his executive order due to the overwhelming opposition.

Obama seems to following in Clinton's footsteps and is deciding that to fully branch out in support of the LGBT community would be too risky.

Welcome to CSP 19 Fall 2010!

This is the course website and course blog for CSP 19: LGBT Rights in the Era of Obama and Google at Occidental College.