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President Barack Obama came up at the Prop 8 trial today, in his persona as President Fierce Advocate for LGBT rights. In a discussion, specifically, of the reliability and dependability of LGBT allies in empowering the LGBT community to achieve its aims and goals.
The appearance was not flattering.
A: An enduring trope is that gays are a threat to children. One campaign ad, young girl was told she could marry a princess too. "If Prop 8 fails, the public schools are going to turn my daughter into a lesbian." Strong taboo against portrayal of G&L as anything but pathological. Not even neutral, but always bad. This lowers the familiarity of the public to the contribution of G&Ls to society.
Q: how affect political power?
A: Demeans, and not taken as seriously. Not seen as desirable coalition partners. Easy to target non-contributors.Q; what about allies?
A: It’s nice to have allies, and it’s great if they are reliable. Many times allies retreat, or their rhetoric exceeds the actions they actually take. Of church, military, government, political parties only the Democratic party favors G&Ls but DOMA under Democratic president, DADT under democratic president and NOW WE HAVE:PRESIDENT FIERCE ADVOCATE!~~~ with his ninth circuit briefs against G&Ls comparing them to bestiality, and proposing nothing to benefit gays and lesbians except Hate Crimes which is an amelioration not a benefit
Q: Are there reliable allies
A: YEs, look across the country, the number of allies in a tough fight is very small but not zero.Q: is that number sufficient to get them power
A: NO
We now have expert testimony in federal court that supports the general view throughout the progressive LGBT community and especially the view of newer and online activists, that President Barack Obama is not a reliable or dependable ally in the fight against LGBT discrimation. And that the nature of his, and others’, unreliability is harmful to the LGBT community.
His occasional and sometime advocacy, fierce though it may be, might be worse than none at all.
It isn’t just bad news that the Obama Administration won’t move forward on the issues he promised during and after the campaign. Worse than that, actually, is the public disrespect that can be inferred from this appreach. If a politician who proclaims himself a "fierce advocate" for our rights can discard our priorities as soon as he is elected, what is going to move less fierce advocates in our direction? And this dismissal of our priorities directly empowers those who are engaged in the fight against us.
With this kind of fierce advocacy, in other words, who needs enemies? If LGBTs are an interest group whose civil rights can be so casually set aside, and if we stand for it without complaint or challenge — why would anyone fight on our behalf?
12 Comments
You could have ended the sentence there.
Great work Teddy, thanks for everything you are doing!
When I hear “fight fiercely” in the context of a Harvard alum, I always think of this.
It may explain Obama’s understanding of “fierce advocacy” better than anything else I’ve seen or read.
hey phred!
Hey Teddy!
I haven’t been commenting on the Prop 8 threads, ’cause I’ve been too busy causing mischief on the MA Senate race threads. Still, I wanted to let you know that I really really appreciate everything you (& EW & DDay) are doing for us out there!
Good post Teddy!
Opened my eyes with that. I haven’t thought of it in terms of power before.
In the past, I’ve often had a difficult conversation with a new straight friend who might promise some sort of support, generally at work.
To which I would say, you know, don’t say that if you don’t mean it, because it will only piss me off if you don’t come through. If you don’t promise, no problem. And I’ve always viewed that in an interpersonal relationship mode, not a power mode.
Not anymore!
MLK in the Letter from a Birmingham Jail:
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
“I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”
I’ve learned something from every witness.
Today was ‘power’ day.
Wish you could be here, Kelly — it’d be fun!
I wish there a way to show people what the world would be like if we could press a button and instantly subtract all the contributions made by LGBTs throughout history and in the present.
Nobody would want to live in that world, not even the haters.
I love what you are doing Teddy! Your my Hero!!
this diary gave me a headache, WTF are you talking about?
Is this cryptic satire?
I’ve been thinking about that particular letter a lot recently
I can’t believe the rights of citizens to marry the person of their choice is still at issue in the 21st century.
What a regressive, fearful, and sad place America has come to be.
So sad.