Nancy Goldsteinn writes in the Guardian about President Obama's relationship with the LGBT community. There's a lot of press interest in Obama and the gays right now. As Joe wrote, Anderson Cooper covered the issue extensively the other night, Huff Post and Politico and NPR all recently wrote about it as well. And tonight I got asked to go on MSNBC's "Hardball" at 530pm EDT to talk about the same topic (tune in). Here's Nancy:
Talks with major LGBT donors, bloggers, and activists reveal marked discontent with the gap between the candidate who promised to be a "fierce advocate" for LGBT Americans and the president who has delivered no legislative victory besides repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" – and that under great duress. (I'm not counting the Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an Obama victory because Congress did all the hard work, while Obama merely signed it into law.)
Otherwise, Obama's contributions have amounted to little more than a generous sprinkling of what blogger Pam Spaulding calls "baby steps for equality" or "Cinderella Crumbs". These are "a shiny, beautiful, breathtaking accomplishment that turns into a pumpkin at midnight – in this case, whenever a future homophobic president decides to rescind the baby step." When "Pink Beltway" political insiders attempt to promote a list of Obama's alleged LGBT-related accomplishments, Spaulding mocks it, while one of her readers breaks the list down into categories ranging from "substantial impact, easily reversed" to "window dressing with no measurable impact."
Or as Robin McGehee, the director and co-founder of GetEQUAL, puts it, "We were promised the Acura with all the accoutrements, but wound up with a stripped-down Honda instead."
