"You're Likable Enough, Gay People"

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"By the historical standards of presidential hubris, Barack Obama's disingenuous defense of his tone-deaf invitation to Rick Warren is a relatively tiny infraction," writes N.Y. Times columnist Frank RIch in his usual Sunday column. "It's no Bay of Pigs. But it does add an asterisk to the joyous inaugural of our first black president. It's bizarre that Obama, of all people, would allow himself to be on the wrong side of this history.

"Since he's not about to rescind the invitation, what happens next? For perspective, I asked Timothy McCarthy, a historian who teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an unabashed Obama enthusiast who served on his campaign's National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Leadership Council. He responded via e-mail on Christmas Eve.

"After noting that Warren's role at the inauguration is, in the end, symbolic, McCarthy concluded that 'it's now time to move from symbol to substance.' This means Warren should 'recant his previous statements about gays and lesbians, and start acting like a Christian.'

"McCarthy added that it's also time 'for President-elect Obama to start acting on the promises he made to the LGBT community during his campaign so that he doesn't go down in history as another Bill Clinton, a sweet-talking swindler who would throw us under the bus for the sake of political expediency.' And 'for LGBT folks to choose their battles wisely, to judge Obama on the content of his policy-making, not on the character of his ministers."

"Amen. Here's to humility and equanimity everywhere in America, starting at the top, as we negotiate the fierce rapids of change awaiting us in the New Year."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 27, 2008 at 10:53 PM

comment #1

scooterzz says ...

not yet even in office and managed to piss-off a whole major voting demo...doesn't bode well for the new messiah.....
smells like clinton to me......

Posted by scooterzz at December 27, 2008 11:52 PM

comment #2

Devin Faraci says ...

A modestly successful two term president? What a nightmare that would be.

Posted by Devin Faraci at December 27, 2008 11:56 PM

comment #3

Sabina E says ...

oh please. if Warren recants his hateful rants against gays and lesbians, he's still not going to change himself as a person. I agree, he better starts acting like a proper Christian.... what happened to "love thy neighbor"???

how sad and pitiful this is.

Posted by Sabina E at December 28, 2008 12:16 AM

comment #4

Pinko Punko says ...

Warren is a total choad, but Frank Rich is a narcissistic, self-important opportunist who happily trashed Al Gore for 18 months prior to the 2000 election. Let's put it this way, Rich has done more to hurt any cause he would like to espouse than Obama could possibly. Also, note the Clinton dig- Clinton was just so terrible, it is like you can't even tell the difference between him and Bush. Rich is execrable. And I think Obama screwed this one up, I just don't think this means its time to burn the house down.

Posted by Pinko Punko at December 28, 2008 12:34 AM

comment #5

VanRamblings says ...

Who Could This Be Talking About?

In Chicago, we've gotten a foretaste of the new breed of the foundation-hatched black communitarian voices; one of them, a smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable do-good credentials and a vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics, has won a state senate seat on a base mainly in the liberal foundation and development worlds. His fundamentally bootstrap line was softened by a patina of the rhetoric of authentic community, talk about meeting in kitchens, small-scale solutions to social problems, and the predictable elevation of process over paradigm...the point where identity politics converges with old-fashioned middle-class reform in favoring form over substance. I suspect that his ilk is the wave of the future in U.S. black politics.

-- Excerpted from The Curse of 'Community', a chapter in "Class Notes, Posing As Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene", by Adolph Reed, Jr. The New Press, New York. Distributed by W.W. Norton & Company. Copyright 2000.

Posted by VanRamblings at December 28, 2008 2:24 AM

comment #6

D.Z. says ...

I ain't a fan of Warren, but I'm just wondering why gay groups have made a bigger uproar over him than they ever did over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Also, I don't think it's fair to compare Obama to Clinton, since Obama isn't trying to appease boomers at the expense of everyone else.

Anyway, I think he picked Rick Warren because he was trying to make an argument to the fundies that he doesn't "hate" their "values", but that they need to get with the 21st century and accept a black guy as Prez. Furthermore, it's not about selling out gay people as it is about making any possible pro-same sex marriage laws less "threatening" to that demo. At least, that's my take on it.

Posted by D.Z. at December 28, 2008 3:19 AM

comment #7

AH says ...

By giving him our vote, we have told the president-elect that we trust. So ... let's trust him. Compared to the issues that our country faces, this is nothing. Its superficial. Let's save our outrage for something substantial.

Posted by AH at December 28, 2008 7:47 AM

comment #8

KB says ...

Wouldn't allow himself to be on the wrong side of history? He's attempting Keynesian economics. Milton Friedman is laughing in his grave.

Call me crazy, but maybe Obama is smart enough to notice that gay marriage isn't popular enough at the moment even to succeed politically in California.

Posted by KB at December 28, 2008 9:38 AM

comment #9

KB says ...

Although I suppose it will cost him Jeffrey Wells' endorsement and the treasured Hollywood-Elsewhere vote.

Posted by KB at December 28, 2008 9:40 AM

comment #10

the400blows says ...

I'll take Bill Clinton over George W. Bush anyday. At least when Clinton was in office, we weren't a trillion dollars in debt, hated by most of the world, and bailing out Wall Street and Detroit. Let's face it: politics is politics. Obama is a politician just as Clinton was a politician. No difference. If you thought Obama would be different then you were naive to think so.

Posted by the400blows at December 28, 2008 11:04 AM

comment #11

Chicago48 says ...

First, I wish G&L community would stop connecting the discriminations & struggles of black people to THEIR struggles; it ain't the same, sorry to say. How many G&L people can say they were shot in the back of their head on a rural road by a cracker sheriff just for being G&L? How many G&L are being thrown out of work on a daily basis; black people have the highest % of unemployment of any people in the country.

However, if anyone thinks that Obama is not a CLINTONish politician, they've got some peas up their A***.....He is very much a Clintonish politician, just look at his cabinet choices!!!!

"doesn't go down in history as another Bill Clinton, a sweet-talking swindler who would throw us under the bus for the sake of political expediency."

Well guess what, that's all politicians....get used to it.

Posted by Chicago48 at December 28, 2008 12:20 PM

comment #12

Chicago48 says ...

AH is so truthful in his remark: G&L issues will take a back seat to the bigger picture. We got more important things to be concerned about. Every black male in my family is unemployed....they could care less about G&L issues.

Posted by Chicago48 at December 28, 2008 12:22 PM

comment #13

George Prager says ...

Who can ever forget the stirring invocation at Clinton's inaugural by, uh, whatshisname, or the moving invocation given by that old white guy at Kennedy's inaugural. Pretty moving stuff.

Posted by George Prager at December 28, 2008 1:10 PM

comment #14

scooterzz says ...

chicago -- re: your first question -- um, matthew shepherd is the first name to come to mind but there are countless more......
re: your second question -- how many black people have been thrown out of the service just for being black?
and re: your cavalier attitude in the second post -- blow me

Posted by scooterzz at December 28, 2008 2:09 PM

comment #15

D.Z. says ...

KB: "Call me crazy, but maybe Obama is smart enough to notice that gay marriage isn't popular enough at the moment even to succeed politically in California."

I think it's the opposite situation, actually. He's hoping to co-opt those homophobes by making them focus on other issues, so he can pass legislation protecting their rights.

Chicago: "First, I wish G&L community would stop connecting the discriminations & struggles of black people to THEIR struggles; it ain't the same, sorry to say. How many G&L people can say they were shot in the back of their head on a rural road by a cracker sheriff just for being G&L?"

Do Matthew Sheppard and the Holocaust count for anything?

"How many G&L are being thrown out of work on a daily basis;"

Do gays in the military count for anything?

"He is very much a Clintonish politician, just look at his cabinet choices!!!!"

His cabinet choices have to do with people he think are the most competent for the job, not about pandering to different interest groups, even if it means hiring an incompetent nitwit like Janet Reno. [Well, except for Hillary, but he had to buy her off to win, so...]

Posted by D.Z. at December 28, 2008 4:56 PM

comment #16

D.Z. says ...

Chicago: Oh, yeah, speaking of discrimination on a regular basis, you must've missed my link I inserted in Jeff's previous Warren thread.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081224/ap_on_re_us/anti_gay_violence

Not to mention this little gem of "tolerance".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/14/gay-teen-shot-by-classmat_n_86632.html

Posted by D.Z. at December 28, 2008 5:00 PM

comment #17

Sabina E says ...

Chicago48, I guess you didn't see the news last week about a lesbian who was beaten and gang-raped, huh?

Posted by Sabina E at December 28, 2008 5:08 PM

comment #18

ZayTonday says ...

It almost seems like Obama is trying to avoid intolerance of intolerance.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/182935/may-07-2007/the-word---the-intolerant

Posted by ZayTonday at December 28, 2008 6:16 PM

comment #19

nola says ...

Hate crimes are horrible period.

However, as a black woman I do reset the leadership of the G&L community, made up mostly of white men, trying to blame Prop 8 on blacks and latinos and comparing the right to marry (as opposed to a legal union) to civil rights.

They should have done some homework and some outreach. Contrary to how the media portrays the black and latino communities both groups are overwhelming socially conservative when it comes to homosexuality.

Also stop with the comparisons. It's apples and oranges. I've work in the biz but I know there are some parts of the country where gays and lesbians don't feel comfortable coming out. Hell even in Hollywood we all know the big stars who refuse to come out even though they are rich and successful.

That said getting the right to marry is not the same with being ripped from your country, culture, sold like cattle, not paid, not educated, then when slavery ends, you have jim crow, second class citizenship etc. It's insulting.

My gay friends of color face more discrimination due to race and/or gender than sexuality.

Posted by nola at December 29, 2008 2:37 AM

comment #20

D.Z. says ...

nola: "Contrary to how the media portrays the black and latino communities both groups are overwhelming socially conservative when it comes to homosexuality"

You sure about that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fzuXQF_wIU

"That said getting the right to marry is not the same with being ripped from your country, culture, sold like cattle, not paid, not educated, then when slavery ends, you have jim crow, second class citizenship etc. It's insulting."

So you don't think gays have to endure second class citizenship?

Posted by D.Z. at December 29, 2008 6:29 AM

comment #21

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