It’s time to wake up: the Democrats are not your friends. Not necessarily. And the Republicans are not necessarily your enemies. (Remember them? Party of Lincoln? First party to seat the same-sex in-law of a Vice President at official State functions at the White House?)
Zombie, at PJM:
Turns out Obama has been a major disappointment for the gay community, while the McCain family has emerged as unexpected supporters of gay marriage.
Yesterday, two unrelated news events perfectly illustrated this unexpected ideological contrast.
The first happened in the California trial challenging the legality of Proposition 8, the measure banning gay marriage in the state. Stanford Professor Gary Segura, an expert witness attempting to show that gays are politically vulnerable and thus need constitutional protection, summarized the gay community’s stinging disappointment over Obama’s inaction as president:
Segura took aim at Obama, saying he was “not a reliable ally” for gays and lesbians, citing his refusal to back gay marriage or end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. When Proposition 8’s lawyer showed a video of a speech last fall in which the president vowed to fight for gay rights, Segura was unyielding.
“I think President Obama is perhaps the best illustration of an ally who can’t be counted on, an ally whose rhetoric far exceeds his actions,” he said.
Oops.
Meanwhile, over in the Republican camp, John McCain’s wife Cindy yesterday totally destroyed the last shred of the tired old stereotype that Republicans are all anti-gay when she appeared as the new spokesmodel for the pro-gay-marriage group “NOH8.” In so doing, she joins her daughter Meghan McCain as an outspoken advocate for gay marriage.
And yes, John McCain himself yesterday was forced to repeat his rather limp boilerplate defense of traditional marriage, but it’s pretty obvious that the issue is near the bottom of his priority list, as he only mentions gay marriage when pestered about it by reporters. If anything, Obama’s public rejection of gay marriage is stronger than McCain’s.
And way, way stronger than President Bush’s. That would be the same President Bush who has been supportive of transexuals in his own life, and whose best friend/Secretary of State has gone out on a career limb for at least one transexual, in an academic setting at a previous job. The same President Bush who shoveled lots and lots of money into AIDS research, and combatting the spread of AIDS. That guy. The guy whose VP was Dick Cheney, who is of course another strong GOP voice for gay marriage.
The odds of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are pretty low in this administration, and I wish Bush had just taken care of that on his way out the door (or that President Clinton hadn’t constructed such a silly “compromise” in the first place). Now, in order to get that problem solved—and it is a Federal problem, rather than a state-level one like gay marriage will be once we ditch DOMA—we need to install a good, solid libertarian-leaning, freedom-loving conservative who can see that gays (not passive-aggressive flamers; regular gays who work well with others and don’t mess up unit cohesion) are working out just fine in the British and Israeli armed forces. We need a Goldwater conservative. (Barry Goldwater’s son was gay, and BG was very disapproving about rules that excluded gays from the military.)
PJM link via Insty.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
There is no American subculture less tolerant of homosexuality, especially male-male homosexuality, than that of urban blacks, unless it’s some tribes of American Indians. If it does nothing else, the success of Proposition 8 confirms that.
It therefore follows that the right way to decisively further the cause of Gay Rights is to elect an urban black man to the Presidency.
It is time to start arguing at that sort of thing and start jeering. BUUUUWAHAHAHA!
Regards,
Ric