Obama and gays: The honeymoon is over

last updated 8 January 2015

Barack Obama has betrayed gay America, said John Aravosis in Salon.com. Gays and lesbians worked hard for his election after the future president hyped himself as a “fierce advocate” of our civil rights. He pledged not only to allow gays to serve openly in the armed forces, but to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. But once Obama took office, he conveniently forgot his promises. More than 250 service members have lost their jobs under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Last week, after gay activists challenged DOMA, the Justice Department actually filed a brief supporting this backward law, saying that if it had to recognize gay marriage, it might have to recognize incestuous marriages, too. As a proud gay man and Obama admirer, I’m fed up, said Andrew Sullivan in TheAtlantic.com. We’re sick of “being treated as second-class human beings.”

Help me understand this, said Christine Flowers in the Philadelphia Daily News. Iran is imploding and North Korea is on the warpath. The economy seems perpetually stalled. “But to gays and lesbians, none of that is as important as getting their feelings hurt by the guy most of them helped put in office.” Sorry, folks, but the president is busy. “He’ll get back to you later.” I understand the hurt feelings, said Chris Geidner in Salon.com, but Obama is still the best friend we gays have ever had in the White House. Last week, he extended health-care and other benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. He recently reaffirmed his opposition to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Progress is admittedly slow, but “the Obama administration has heard us.”

Hearing us isn’t enough, said Aravosis in Salon.com. Obama apparently worries that actually making good on his promises will cause a conservative backlash, but gay rights is no longer “the third rail of presidential politics.” Today two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans and churchgoers, favor same-sex marriages and civil unions and allowing openly gay people to serve their country. Any controversy about gay equality “is in Obama’s mind.” He’s not the only obstacle, said Jonathan Capehart in The Washington Post. To get rid of DOMA and “don’t ask, don’t tell,” we need the House and Senate to pass new laws, which Obama will gladly sign. So “if gays and lesbians want big victories, they should focus their fire where it belongs: on Congress.”