American Gays and Lesbians Feel Betrayed by Obama

By Marc Pitzke

More and more Americans support equal rights for gays and lesbians and oppose the ban on openly homosexual soldiers serving in the military. But Barack Obama seems to be behind the curve on gay rights -- and the calls for him to act are getting louder.

Not even the rain kept them away. First, there was only a handful, then a few dozen, and finally thousands. They marched from New York's West Village through the traffic to Union Square, chanting. Many carried posters and banners many with slogans like "Civil rights now," "Equality for all families" and "No tolerance for intolerance."

However, one banner showed a portrait of US President Barack Obama as a two-headed Janus figure. The left head was spouting Obama's famous 2008 campaign slogan, "Yes we can." But the right head was saying: "No we can't."

The recent march through Manhattan was officially directed against the refusal of the Supreme Court of California to annul the Proposition 8 referendum banning same-sex marriage. But many of the protesters -- who were mainly gay men and lesbians -- had another enemy in mind: Obama.

Obama's perceived hypocrisy makes the protestors almost more livid than Proposition 8 itself. In their opinion, Obama has chickened out of openly taking a stance on the latest act of the eternal American culture war surrounding gay marriage -- contrary to the hopes of gay Americans. "Where's Obama?" asks Lisa Ackerman, a lawyer who is marching through the rain with her girlfriend. "His silence speaks volumes."

Indeed, where is Obama? It's a question which is being posed increasingly often by gays and lesbians in the US. Despite their initial skepticism, they almost exclusively supported Obama in the presidential race once Hillary Clinton had been eliminated. In return, Obama had said he would be their "fierce advocate" and promised among other things to scrap the notorious Pentagon "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the US military and to help pave the way to the right to same-sex marriage.

But American gays and lesbians are still waiting in vain for Obama to fulfill his election promises. While the US in general is clearly heading in the direction of a relaxation of homophobic policies, the White House is shying away from the issue. Even worse, on some issues, it has actually put new stumbling blocks in the way of gay rights.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court sided with the Obama administration and refused to hear an appeal from former Army infantryman James Pietrangelo against the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The 1993 law, which bars openly homosexual soldiers from military service, relates to "the government's legitimate interest in military discipline," argued Obama's Solicitor General Elena Kagan in the administration's brief to the Supreme Court.

'Where Is Our New Deal?'

The Supreme Court's decision was just the latest in a series of incidents that have turned the American gay lobby against the president. As well as DADT (as the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is commonly known) and gay marriage, gay activists are frustrated by slow progress in the fight against AIDS and the ban on visas and green cards for people infected with HIV. For some, these cases confirm the doubts they already had about Obama when he asked the pastor Rick Warren -- who opposes gay marriage -- to give the invocation at his inauguration.

"Where's our fierce advocate?" wrote Richard Socarides, who advised former President Bill Clinton on gay issues, recently in the Washington Post. "Across a broad spectrum of issues -- including women's rights, stem cell research and relations with Cuba -- the Obama administration has shown a willingness to exploit this change moment to bring about dramatic reform. So why not on gay rights? Where is our New Deal?"

Admittedly Obama did issue a presidential proclamation declaring June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month," a move applauded as a "nice start" by gay activist David Mixner on his blog. But many activists feel that Obama is lagging behind when it comes to concrete commitments.

With his reticence, Obama is bucking the national trend. The struggle for equality for homosexuals has become an "almost-inevitable march," said former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, who outed himself and resigned from office in 2004, in an interview with the New York Times Magazine. Gay marriage has now been recognized in six states, and most activists see the California referendum as just a temporary setback." (der Spiegel)