Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Pride and the President

Sometimes I look at President Obama and have to remember that I'm not watching an episode of the West Wing. The good stuff he's doing is actually real. I suppose it's only fair after spending 8 years fearing what Bush was going to do next - I mean, we had it all - torture, illegal wars, the terrible inaction after Hurricane Katrina.

And what's this, a Pride event in the White House? And it's not just a Big Block of Cheese day event with the equivalent of Josh, Toby or CJ, it's with the President himself. Fantastic stuff - but it's not just words. If you read the speech, he is quietly rearranging things to make a huge difference to people's lives - making sure that employment benefits go to LGBT partners, for example.

An encouraging start.

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4 comments:

Neil said...

Sadly Caron I think the rhetoric is not yet matched by action.

None of his major campaign promises on LGBT issues have been fulfilled and the partner rights you mentioned were almost tokenistic as they did not include the major areas of pensions and healthcare.

If this was a school report card Obama would be getting a "must try harder" mark from the LGBT community.

Unknown said...

"I'm also urging Congress to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act, which will guarantee the full range of benefits, including health care, to LGBT couples and their children."

Thanks, Neil. This is directly from the speech and says that health care is included as is the "full range of benefits". I agree that any measure that did not include these things would be completely meaningless.

Neil said...

A "full range" is not the same as a complete range. If you want to know why the President is getting so much flack at the moment then have a look at this editorial from that most liberal of papers, The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/opinion/16tue1.html?scp=3&sq=obama%20gay&st=cse

Stephen Glenn said...

The fact that after 8 years of nothing a President is looking at fulfilling any range is a step forward. I know it is 40 years since Stonewall and there still is some way to go but every step along the way needs to be applauded.

Of course now that there are 60 votes in the Senate to help him he may be able to be more daring and step further forward.

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