Obama, DADT and DOMA

If you track gay rights issues at all, you know that LGBT voters are plenty steamed by what they perceive as being cast aside by the Obama administration.  The DOJ wrote an inflammatory memo supporting the Defense Of Marriage Act, which allows states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.  And despite widespread support, there has been almost no progress repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the disingenuous Clinton-era policy that allows gays to risk their lives for our country as long as they shut up about it.

And yeah… I’m not too happy about either of these things.  There’s a whole class of Americans being treated like second-class citizens because they’re, well, kinda queer.  It isn’t right.  Here’s Obama last fall:

...I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together…

And tonight? He came out (no pun intended) against DOMA as discriminatory (and an interference with states’ rights), and pledged to work for its repeal. Didn’t mention DADT, but said that the Federal government would offer equal benefits for gay partners of its employees.

It isn’t enough; the LGBT community is even madder than ever.  They wanted to be first, I think.  Which, if you’re being treated like a second-class citizen is understandable.  I’d be getting pretty damned impatient myself. It’s easy for me to talk about patience (cue MLK speech on the subject here) from the comfort of my 29-year heterosexual marriage.

But don’t forget that Obama is a politician.  He has just so much political capital to spend, and a hell of a lot of things on his shopping list.  He might be playing the long game.  Regardless of anything he does, DADT is going away, gay marriage is coming, and our society will finally get over its fear of Teh Gay.  Possibly he has decided that in light of other political challenges he faces, it doesn’t matter if he gets credit for something that is going to happen anyway.

What he did tonight is a positive step, and it’s in line with his apparent philosophy of doing “the work we must do to move forward together”.  It’s the exact opposite of what a dictator does.  But even positive changes in the law can be overturned; a change of heart may be the only hope of permanent change.  When people finally say; “Hey, you know what?  Two guys could get married and it wouldn’t be the end of the world after all.” 

Imagine if the abortion issue had been handled this way.  Really, I’m trying to imagine it because there are a number of counterintuitive elements.  It may have been legalized ten years later than it was, but we might have a very different society today if it had been.  We might not be living on the scorched Earth of a culture war battlefield.

At least, I hope that is what happening.

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Posted by George on 06/17/09 at 09:46 PM
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