RSS Subscribe
President Obama’s speech at Saturday night’s Human Rights Campaign dinner included 
a reaffirmed pledge to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but included virtually no information on when this action might take place. While last week, Obama’s National Security Adviser, James Jones, said that Obama would seek to repeal the military ban on gays in the military “at the right time,” Obama reported to be working with Pentagon and congressional leaders on ending the Clinton-era policy.
“We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country,” Obama said. “We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage … especially when we are fighting two wars.”
Obama also acknowledged that “our progress may be taking longer than we like.”
“I appreciate that many of you don’t believe progress has come fast enough,” Obama said. “Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach.”
Still, some activists, including National Equality March co-chair Cleve Jones, expressed impatience over a timeline not being issued by the president. Per a Huffington Post story,
Cleve Jones, a pioneer activist and creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, said Obama delivered a brilliant speech, but added “it lacked the answer to our most pressing question, which is when.”
HRC President Joe Solmonese wasn’t nearly as reticent to accept the president’s promises of progress. In a newsletter, Solmonese said:
“He made it crystal clear that he is our strongest ally in this fight, that he understands and, in fact, encourages our activism and our voice even when we’re impatient with the pace of change.
And we heard unequivocally about the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: “I am working with the Pentagon, its leadership and members of the House and Senate to end this policy. I will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That is my commitment to you.”
Finally, we heard something quite remarkable from the President: “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men and two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.
It was an historic night when we felt the full embrace and commitment of the President of the United States. It’s simply unprecedented.
HRC plans to capitalize on the momentum forged for progress by the president’s speech. But how long will the country’s gay rights activists remain patient with important repeals? What do you think of the president’s speech?
Video after the jump.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Westpdx // Oct 12, 2009 at 2:31 pm
From Time Magazine:
Obama’s Gay Outreach: All Talk, No Action
“Obama did pledge — as he has before — to end the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But once again he said nothing specific about how he plans to do that and didn’t acknowledge that he already has the statutory power to instruct the Pentagon that investigating service members’ sexuality is not in the best interest of the armed forces. Also, he said that gay relationships can be “just as real and admirable” as straight relationships, but he did not say gay couples should be treated equally. Obama, after all, still opposes equal marriage rights.”
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929687,00.html
From The New York Times:
In the nine months since, Mr. Obama has made only limited progress on the issues that are important to gays. He has pushed for hate crime legislation, and a bill, approved in the House on Thursday, now appears headed for passage. He has put forth a package of domestic partnership benefits for federal workers, but faced criticism that the effort did not include health benefits. He has said he would push to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages in other states, but it remains on the books.
But of all the issues Mr. Obama has vowed to address, the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is perhaps the one that stirs the most emotion. Mr. Obama said Saturday night that he was working with the Pentagon and with House and Senate leaders to repeal the policy, but many gay rights supporters have accused him of dragging his feet.
In the days before the speech, many advocates for gay rights said they hoped he would lay out a timetable for overturning the policy or otherwise offer specifics on how he will achieve his goal.
“An opportunity was missed tonight,” Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which represents gay and lesbian soldiers, said in a statement afterward.
From Politico:
President Obama offers little new in speech to gay rights activists at HRC dinner
But while the speech was applauded in the hall, reaction outside of it was was harsher, with many prominent gay voices concerned by the president’s lack of specifics.
Prominent gay blogger John Aravosis, in a post titled “Where’s the Beef?”, wrote that “Obama repeated his campaign promises. That was it.”
“An opportunity was missed tonight,” said Kevin Dix of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which had urged Obama to set a deadline for ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. “When are we going to get this done? We didn’t hear any of that tonight.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28156.html
From the Dallas Morning News:
“We were hoping that [Obama] would come through on some of his campaign promises faster than he has,” said Erin Moore, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, an activist group. “We’re still hopeful that something will happen, but the window of opportunity is closing very rapidly.”
Rob Schlein, president of the gay activist group Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas, said Obama missed an opportunity to change the policy when his Justice Department urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear a case addressing the issue.
“His administration promises one thing and does another,” Schlein said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/101109dnnatdontask.3e7cb7e.html
2 Kayla // Oct 12, 2009 at 3:29 pm
At least Obama is addressing the issue and making it a part of his agenda. That’s more than McCain would have done. He has a lot on his plate now. I believe he’ll get it done. http://www.newsy.com/videos/obama_i_will_end_don_t_ask_don_t_tell
3 Just J // Oct 13, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Kayla,
We can’t compare his “accomplishments” to WWMD (what would McCain Do). Is that our only option? Sit in the back of the bus and wait for something that may never happen?
The reality is that Obama promised many things to secure the gay vote. It is time for him to act or he will certainly lose my vote next election.
It seems that our messiah has some shortcomings. To be honest, I am more concerned with his recent decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan. Apparently the invasion of a third world country equates into the Nobel Peace Prize.
Leave a Comment