Saturday, June 13, 2009

American Gays and Lesbians Feel Betrayed by Obama

Spiegel Online
June 12, 2009
"This is a civil rights moment," Evan Wolfson, executive director of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, told Frank Rich, the New York Times' openly gay star columnist. "And Obama has not yet risen to it." Wolfson compares the situation with 1963, when the black civil rights movement was stagnating. The breakthrough, he said, only came when President Lyndon B. Johnson was galvanized into action. The Democrats lack "a towering national figure to make the moral case" for full gay civil rights, Wolfson said, and Obama hasn't shown any signs so far of wanting to follow Johnson's example. [Link]

3 comments:

Unknown said...

President Obama, captured my heart after so many dreadful years of George W. Bush. We certainly needed a change, and a change we got. He said before he was elected that he felt marriage was between a man and a woman. He couldn't have said anything different and won the election; lets face it. However, I really did believe, that as a black man (well, half black, anyway) that he would have equality first and foremost on his front burner. I am afraid as each and every day passes that he may be just one more homophobic individual. Let's face it, it was by a very large degree of blacks that passed prop 8 in California. Of all the people in the world who should stand in the way of equal rights, it's the blacks. I just don't know what to say or what to do. All we can hope for is a state by state decision . . . it may take longer than we would like, but maybe the old adage is correct . . . "All good things come to those who wait."

Anonymous said...

It was especially said that the department of Justice had to make these statements on the anniversary of Loving Vs Virginia. Barack Obama's Parents weren't allowed to legally marry in 22 states when he was born. The supreme court decriminalized homosexuality in 2003. With that should have come the same legalization of marriage that occurred when anti miscegenation criminal penalties were repealed federally.

Anonymous said...

Not just "gays and lesbians". I'm straight, am for marriage equality, and feel betrayed too.