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HRC and Obama
Saturday, June 06, 2009
By John Aravosis
AMERICAblog
There's a growing firestorm in the gay community over what exactly the largest gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, did or didn't agree to with the White House over Don't Ask Don't Tell, ENDA, Hate Crimes and more.
At issue: Did HRC agree to postpone White House action on DADT until next year, or longer?
I've talked to Joe (Sudbay) about this, and we think the brouhaha may be missing the point. The issue isn't whether HRC worked with the White House to prioritize Obama's gay rights promises, deciding to work on some promises this year, others next year, etc. In principle, that doesn't bother us, and in fact makes sense. I don't think either of us expected Obama to keep all 8, or so, promises in the first 100 days, or the first year. You have to approach these things methodically, and so long as we know absolutely, positively without question that x and y will happen this year, z will happen next year, and p, d, and q the years after that, we're less concerned about HRC, or anyone else, working with Obama to set up such a timetable for implementation.
The thing is, no one believes that the White House has any intention of doing anything, regardless of any timetable.
That is, I think, the conundrum HRC is facing. If the White House has decided to distance itself from the gay community (and that's certainly what the community believes), and HRC is seen as in cahoots with that White House, the community will naturally assume that HRC signed off on the White House's effort to put gay rights on the back burner indefinitely....(Click for remainder.)
AMERICAblog
There's a growing firestorm in the gay community over what exactly the largest gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, did or didn't agree to with the White House over Don't Ask Don't Tell, ENDA, Hate Crimes and more.
At issue: Did HRC agree to postpone White House action on DADT until next year, or longer?
I've talked to Joe (Sudbay) about this, and we think the brouhaha may be missing the point. The issue isn't whether HRC worked with the White House to prioritize Obama's gay rights promises, deciding to work on some promises this year, others next year, etc. In principle, that doesn't bother us, and in fact makes sense. I don't think either of us expected Obama to keep all 8, or so, promises in the first 100 days, or the first year. You have to approach these things methodically, and so long as we know absolutely, positively without question that x and y will happen this year, z will happen next year, and p, d, and q the years after that, we're less concerned about HRC, or anyone else, working with Obama to set up such a timetable for implementation.
The thing is, no one believes that the White House has any intention of doing anything, regardless of any timetable.
That is, I think, the conundrum HRC is facing. If the White House has decided to distance itself from the gay community (and that's certainly what the community believes), and HRC is seen as in cahoots with that White House, the community will naturally assume that HRC signed off on the White House's effort to put gay rights on the back burner indefinitely....(Click for remainder.)
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