Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
(NOTE: Beginning next week, Queer Talk moves to noon on Fridays.)
Last week ago I wrote Obama Delays Implementation of Promised Work Place Protection. For months, the administration had, as ThinkProgress reported it, “dodg(ed) questions about the progress of an executive order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal contracting.” Instead, the White House announced it will do a study about “whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees require employment protections.”
Candidate Obama said he’d work to make things like the Employment Nondiscrimination Act happen, and this executive order is seen as a step in that direction. ENDA has been around since 1994, and the claim that yet another study is required is ridiculous.
From Igor Volsky at Nation of Change:
Gay rights activists are … plan(ning) to launch a ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign to urge President Obama to … issue the directive ahead of the November elections. The effort, which co-opts one of the Obama campaign’s own slogans, will be funded by ‘Jonathan Lewis, son of billionaire Democratic benefactor Peter Lewis.’
Obama, of course, is not the originator of the “We Can’t Wait” phrase, one employed by by Martin Luther King in his 1963 memoir, Why We Can’t Wait, in which he argued that a “gradualist” approach wasn’t enough.
“Gradualist” could be a polite way to describe the proposed WH study. Or as Michelangelo Signorile, quoted in Volsky’s piece, described the WH rationale, it “was weak, it was shallow, it was unpersuasive.”
It actually gets worse. Realizing that even HRC was publicly speaking out, the WH then moved to an equally strange second stage. From MetroWeekly:
… White House spokesman Shin Inouye tells Metro Weekly … that ‘the time is right for a comprehensive legislative approach’ to address anti-LGBT workplace discrimination – a reference to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act – although he added that ‘the Administration hasn’t taken any options off the table.’
As John Aravosis says about this “time is right” claim regarding ENDA, Uh, no it’s not.
A “comprehensive legislative approach” is certainly needed. We’ve known that since at least 1994. But passing ENDA now is impossible, and everyone knows it. Punting the executive order, then bringing up ENDA, then throwing out that the administration “hasn’t taken any options off the table,” then less than 24 hours later, changing things again and saying the executive order is actually off the table … this doesn’t appear to be anything but an election year scramble of their own creation.
A WaPo story notes, about the “no options off the table” comment that it’s
… an assertion interpreted by activists as a ‘kick-the-can’ approach to avoid inflaming pre-election criticism.
When you kick the can down the road you always run the risk of tripping over it later on. In this case, the tripping started only one or two steps later.
On Thursday, the Washington Post weighed in with a strongly worded editorial. Via Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlogGay, regarding WH press secretary Jay Carney’s efforts to explain Obama’s decision:
Mr. Carney struggled for some eight minutes but was unable to give a satisfactory answer. That’s understandable, because there is no principled reason for refusing to extend such workplace protections to millions of Americans.’
As Sudbay writes:
This was a no-brainer – and it’s clear from the editorials and commentary from the traditional media that no one is buying the White House spin.
At MetroWeekly, Sean Bugg provides some analysis, including the “political pragmatism” of many LGBT’s.
… it’s with a certain level of … experience that so many of us are looking at Obama’s decision … and asking, ‘What the hell?’ …
Making matters worse are the laughable antics of the White House as it contorts itself to explain the inexplicable. …
The questions being raised in Queerdom aren’t just about Obama. Writing at HuffPo, Signorile points out:
One thing that’s being asked is how gay leaders allowed this to happen. Paul Yandura, a gay former Clinton aide, says the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) gave the administration a pass, with HRC sitting on its polling on the issue when it should have released it publicly months ago, and NGLTF not even sending out a press release right after the meeting to criticize the president.
A larger problem is that HRC endorsed the president a year ago, and all the group appears to have gotten in return was his presence as a speaker at their annual dinner. That helps them sell lots of tickets, but doesn’t do much in attaining tangible rights.
Yesterday two things happened. First, The Task Force finally released a statement, urging people to “Join us in telling President Obama to step up right now for workplace equality by issuing an executive order … .”
And second, GetEqual announced “We’re Keeping the Pressure On” actions. After last week’s WH meeting with LGBT organizational representatives where the decision was announced,
… the grassroots erupted – surprising even us with folks’ anger and frustration with the White House. …
… even with all of the mainstream press that this decision has received, it appears they are refusing to back down. …
Starting next week, well be going to Obama for America campaign offices across the country, staging actions that will continue to draw attention to this Executive Order … .
I don’t know what will happen with GetEqual’s “Keeping the Pressure On” or with the “We Can’t Wait” action. But the widespread condemnation of Obama’s decision should make it clear that, among other things, “We can’t wait” to advocate for full equality just because it’s a presidential election year, which is what it appears the WH expected us to do.
The most effective way to push Obama to the left is by “mic checking” him when he gives a speech. He should hear “We can’t wait” everywhere he goes. He needs to hear about union rights, the war on women, student loans and bank reposessions wherever he goes. This is the only way to confront him publicly so that the media will cover it.
How to get media to pay attention is definitely a big factor. A part of what started this current “eruption” as GetEqual terms it was when a gay couple let it be known they would be at the annual Easter Egg Roll at the WH, and would seek to ask Obama about about LGBT equality. Being confronted, via mic check for a good example, is clearly something the Obama campaign would rather avoid. Maybe especially from a “base” group.
I’d love to see Obama and Romney both “mic checked” as they campaign, though the “crowd control” methods will probably make that challenging. Like kettling for another example. Keeping the unhappy voices away from Campaigners seems to be a priority.
No doubt it will be challenging. Verbal and peaceful confrontation with politicians who surround themselves with armed guards will not be easy.
Waiting until next year for reforms sounds an awful lot like waiting another four years to me. The President is clearly not interested in doing the things gay activists want him to. As long as he can count on their support, that won’t change.
It’s the usual situation, yes, if the Electeds and wannabe’s know they’ll get your vote no matter what.
President Obama is not going to kiss the rumps of the activist gay/lesbian communiity. That’s how you lose elections. Its why John Kerry lost Ohio, the presidential election, and handed four more years to Bush. Change will happen when the american people are ready for it, its just not yet.
If you saw the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll you would have seen that the approval rating for occupy wall street movement has cratered and is now below even the low approval ratings of the Tea Party.
There’s a reason, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been hijacked by a coalition of gay/lesbian activists, anarchists who want to overthrow capitalism and a long list of Progressive activists darlings like Michael Moore, Ed Schultz, and Rachel Maddow who have lower approval ratings than the Congress.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/A_Politics/_Today_Stories_Teases/12336%20APRIL%20NBC-WSJ%20Poll%20Release%20(4-19).pdf
Kiss my furry rump. Kerry lost, first and foremost, because he didn’t represent much of a difference relative to Bush on the issues that mattered. Was he going to get us out of Iraq? No. Was he going to do anything serious about rising economic inequality and the out of control financial sector? Not a chance. Kerry was the ultimate milquetoast centrist candidate, minus Barack Obama’s ability to make inspirational speeches. Real progressives saw little reason to make an effort on his behalf, and he lost.
Go figure.
If you can cite an example of some rousing speech or inspiring stand Kerry took on behalf of gays, you might have been able to make a point. Instead, you point to an utterly irrelevant and meaningless poll. Most people only know what they see on TV about Occupy, which is to say they know nothing at all.
I guess you havent’ noticed. Pointing at polls is all RAJensen ever does.
Well, that and tell us to fall in behind the President and keep our mouths shut, because the ONLY thing that matter is his re-election, and we (men, women, children, gays, peaceniks, envirnmentalists, etc.) are all just “special interests” that the President can and should ignore, because By The Way Check Out This Poll.
Well, yes, I had noticed. Actually, I’d noticed that his basic schtick is to talk utter nonsense while doing his best to insult anyone who doesn’t take that nonsense seriously.
Some days I’m more accommodating to that style than others.
RAJenson, I am not a activist, I am a moderate when it comes to political views, but I am gay and I just want the President to lead the charge like many Democratic Governors are doing in support of Gay Marriage, which national polls show are moving in favor of. You say we should wait, not when people can’t visit their spouse or partner in the hospital because their family won’t allow it because of their hatred, and your not considered family because you can’t legally get married, You can also lose property rights where half of you and your partners belongings or property can go to your partners family even if you don’t want it too because your not legally married. LGBT Americans are treated like second class citizens even though we pay taxes, contribute to our communitys, and even fight and die for this country. I am sorry, I can’t wait and neither can millions of LGBT Americans, we are always told to wait, if we listened to this logic, the Gay Community would not have even made the strides we have made in the years. It was the activists that made the strides in our Civil Rights and Human Rights. I am forever greatful to the Womens Rights Movement, Gay Rights Movement, Civil Rights Movement and Human Rights Movement, without them, myself and many others would not even be allowed to be ourselves.