The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has asked the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination (people over whom they can be presumed to have very little, if any, influence) to denounce and disavow anti-gay reparative “pray-away-the-gay” therapy as practiced by “Dr” Marcus Bachmann at Bachmann Associates, the mental health practice he co-owns with his wife, presidential candidate and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Today, HRC is calling on the GOP candidates for President to disavow the dangerous “ex-gay” or “reparative therapies” endorsed by Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus, a practicing, but unlicensed Minnesota psychologist whose clinic has been known to practice these therapies.

The very next day, Fred Karger, the gay contender for the GOP nomination and founder of Californians Against Hate who successfully sued the Mormon Church for its misleading campaign filings during Proposition 8, said this:

“She’s a liar and now that she’s been busted, she’s trying to divert attention away from her lies,” Fred Karger told the Michigan Messenger. “She is just another hypocrite and bigot.”

So, yay, HRC! Winning!

At today’s White House press briefing, the Washington Blade asked press secretary Jay Carney what President Obama’s opinion is of reparative therapy.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined comment Monday on questions on President Obama’s position on widely discredited “ex-gay” reparative therapy aimed at changing gay individuals into being straight.

Under questioning from the Washington Blade, Carney said he hasn’t had any conversations with the president on reparative therapy — or whether Medicaid funding should support the practice — and deferred inquiries to the Department of Health & Human Services.

HRC has endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2012. Therefore, HRC can be presumed to have some influence over his thinking and views on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. Shouldn’t the HRC pursue the president and his team for an answer on this question? Having endorsed the president for re-election, does HRC really expect to get an answer from any of the (other, non-gay) GOP candidates?

I mean, it’s fun to put the GOP candidates on the spot for how one of their own earns her living, but don’t LGBT supporters of the President deserve to know his views, too?

HRC, ask your endorsed candidate: does he support anti-gay reparative therapy? Or does he not support it?

Much is being made about the prominent voices who will testify at Senator Leahy’s DOMA hearing next Wednesday, but I wanted to highlight the story of one person directly affected by DOMA who will tell his story to Senators next week. Legally married in California, testimony will be heard from:

Ron Wallen, an Indio, Calif. resident, who married Tom Carrollo in 2008
after being together for 55 years. In March, Carrollo lost his battle to
cancer. After Carrollo’s death, Wallen’s income was compromised because DOMA prohibits him from receiving his spouse’s Social Security payment. Wallen would have been able to receive these payments had he been in an
opposite-sex marriage. According to the hearing notice, Wallen is unable to
make payments on his family home and is faced with selling the residence,
after just losing his spouse.

Celebrity testifiers include Evan Wolfson, the head of Freedom to Marry, who has dedicated his life to this work and has certainly earned a place at the table. Also included is Joe Solmonese, who heads an organization that claims a million members, which entitles him to attend White House cocktail parties where he can show off his Dolce & Gabbana suits. Let’s hope he wears a pretty one for the teevee cameras next week!

But it’s Ron Wallen’s story that needs to be heard. Because it’s the real story of the pain, anguish and theft imposed by DOMA. It’s Ron Wallen who is actually affected by DOMA. It’s Ron Wallen who is losing his home. It’s Ron Wallen who is being hurt by the Social Security Administration’s DOMA restrictions. Here is Ron and Tom’s story.

Donald Hitchcock, writing at Act on Principles, asks national LGBT leadership a pointed question: what went wrong with the Obama Administration? We had such high hopes — are we supposed to be content with only the Byrd/Shepard Hate Crimes Law?

As an LGBT community we were so hopeful in the Obama Administration. We were going to get ENDA passed, DADT repealed, and even our relationships recognized with the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Many in our community were part of the Obama Transition team, and many met to provide resources, advice, and support to the new Administration.

Now we are seeing our legislative priorities (in no particular order) including ENDA, DADT repeal, Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), and DOMA repeal slip beyond the midterms….

Recalling those hopeful days of the Obama/Biden Transition, Hitchcock kindly re-posts a message from Greg Varnum, Executive Director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. From the December 2008 meeting, Greg wrote:

A number of things about the meeting left me feeling very optimistic about the developing relationship between Obama’s Administration and the LGBTQ community. For starters, The Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute’s excellent leadership on the Presidential Appointments Project has resulted in a collaborative effort our community can certainly be proud of. The transition team cited it as a model for how constituency groups should approach the appointments process. Kudos to Chuck Wolfe and Mark Perriello for their vision and leadership on this project.

Leaders such as Rea Carey from The Task Force, and Joe Solmonese from the Human Rights Campaign, spoke about some of our top concerns. Chuck Wolfe from The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, shared his comments on our community’s expectations during the remainder of the transition process. Ben DeGuzman of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Leonard Hirsch of the Federal GLOBE and I all spoke to the intersections of our community over many other constituency groups and the need to address the many constituencies within the LGBTQ community. Rebecca Haag from the AIDS Action Council and H. Alexander Robinson from the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) brought up a number of important points about the AIDS epidemic which continues to plague our community. Others spoke very eloquently about many vital issues.

In fact, Greg published a list of all in-person and by-phone attendees.

Leaders Joining in Person
in alphabetical order

1. U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin)
2. Elizabeth Birch, Former President of the Human Rights Campaign
3. Jeremy Bishop, AFL-CIO Pride at Work
4. Brian Bond, Former National Constituency Director at Obama for America
5. Mark Bromley, Council for Global Equality
6. Rea Carey, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)
7. Mandy Carter, Co-Chair of Obama PRIDE
8. Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal
9. Jamie Citron, Former Deputy LGBT Vote Director at Obama for America
10. Ben DeGuzman, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)
11. U.S. Representative Barney Frank (Massachusetts)
12. Joan Garry, Co-Chair of Obama for America LGBT National Finance Council
13. Rebecca Haag, AIDS Action Council
14. Leonard Hirsch, Federal GLOBE
15. Jon Hoadley, National Stonewall Democrats (NSD)
16. Jody Huckaby, Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
17. Mara Keisling, National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)
18. Justin Nelson, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
19. Dave Noble, Former LGBT Vote Director at Obama for America
20. Matt Nosanchuk, Convener of the LGBT Policy Committee, Obama for America
21. Mark Perriello, Presidential Appointments Project (coalition of 12 national LGBT groups)
22. U.S. Representative-Elect Jared Polis (Colorado)
23. H. Alexander Robinson, National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC)
24. Aubrey Sarvis, Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN)
25. Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
26. Campbell Spencer, Co-Chair of Obama PRIDE
27. Winnie Stachelberg, Senior Vice President a the Center for American Progress
28. Greg Varnum, National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC)
29. Chuck Wolfe, Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute

Leaders Joining By Phone
in alphabetical order

1. Marsha Botzer, Co-Chair of Obama PRIDE
2. Dr. Eliza Byard, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
3. Jorge Cestou, Unid@s
4. Jennifer Chrisler, Family Equality Council
5. Matt Coles, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and AIDS Project
6. Earl Fowlkes, International Federation of Black Prides (IFBP)
7. Rebecca Fox, National Coalition for LGBT Health
8. Jesse Garcia, Co-Chair of Obama PRIDE
9. Kate Kendell, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
10. Carolyn Laub, Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSAN)
11. Rick Stafford, Chair of the DNC Gay and Lesbian Caucus
12. Eric Stern, Co-Chair of Obama PRIDE
13. Lee Swislow, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD)
14. Andy Tobias, Treasurer of the DNC
15. Evan Wolfson, Freedom to Marry

Presidential Transition Team
in speaking order

1. Fred Hochberg, Agency Review Team Lead
2. Mike Strautmanis, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison
3. Dana Singiser, Director of Public Liaison
4. John Podesta, Co-Chair
5. Parag Mehta, Public Liaison
6. Jim Messina, Director of Personnel
7. Elaine Kaplan, Agency Review Team Lead
8. Heather Higginbottom
9. Melody Barnes, Co-Director of Agency Review
10. Roberta Achtenberg, Agency Review Team Lead

also attending from the PTT

11. Tom Perez, Agency Review Team Lead
12. Brad Kiley, Director of Operations
13. John Michael Gonzales, Congressional Affairs
14. Chris Chan, Volunteer
15. Pepin Tuma, Volunteer
16. Alex Wagner, Volunteer

Additional Guests

1. Rufus Gifford
2. Jeremy Bernard
3. Karine Jean Pierre

Donald Hitchcock, quite rightly asks of every single one of these attendees, activists and allies all:

What went wrong my friends, what went wrong?

I wonder if we will ever know the answer to that question, as every single LGBT priority slips away in the upcoming midterms. Congress will touch nothing now. And a new Congress may be unwilling or, even, unable to bring any of our issues to the floor.

What went wrong my friends, what went wrong?

President Barack Obama will give the keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner this Saturday in Washington, DC. Yet another example of the Village Veal Pen guaranteeing its own White House access in exchange for…. what exactly?

NYT, via Pam:

Mr. Obama’s appearance on Saturday at the annual dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights advocacy group, represents a significant show of support for gay rights at a time when many prominent gay and lesbian activists have been questioning the president’s commitment to their issues.

Many gay rights activists have become increasingly vocal about their frustration over what they see as tepid support from Mr. Obama. While the president has professed support for overturning the ban on gays in the military and called the law that precludes federal recognition of same-sex marriages discriminatory, he has not engaged on gay rights issues as actively as some had hoped.

Will the President make news or recite prior platitudes?

There is, of course, an opportunity for the President to make news, reminds Pam:

The HRC dinner is expected to have more than 3,000 in attendance, and one thing will be clear — President Obama will be hobnobbing with the A-gays, not the people at the march. As he will be only the second President to attend the dinner (Bill Clinton was the other) I hope that Obama has some actual news to break about acting on his promises at that dinner or he’s going to be in a world of PR hurt.

Karen Ocamb, at her new blog LGBT POV, has a succinct to-do list for the President:

I wonder if someone will jump up and challenge him just as Lane Hudosn [sic] challenged former President Bill Clinton on marriage equality at the Netroots Nation convention.

On the other hand – maybe Obama will announce he’s signing a stop-loss order for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And since HRC is honoring Judy Shepard, perhaps he’ll announce that he’s personally stepping in to push the hate crimes law attached to the Defense Appropriations bill, now in the conference committee.

Or he’ll clarify his Justice Department’s approach to defending DOMA in the courts.

Or he’ll come out in favor of full marriage equality – a position he publicly held in the 1990s.

Or maybe he’ll talk about how he will personally push for ENDA – and start including discussion of LGBT couples in his public talks about healthcare reform – since so many are not covered by health insurance. Remember this when he accepted the Democratic nomination:

“I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in a hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.”

Was that the last time he mentioned LGBT people and healthcare?

We don’t want President Obama to fail. But we want to be part of his success, particularly since he has recognized how far behind LGBTs are in civil law throughout the United States. While thousands converge on Washington this weekend for the National Equality March, how will President Obama use his HRC platform?

UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, Andrew Sullivan has an opinion:

There is nothing Obama can say at this self-satisfied, well-heeled Rotary Club dinner that he hasn’t said before. And the idea that simply showing up is something we should all be ecstatic over and grateful for is another sign of the low self-esteem and lack of self-respect among the leaders of that organization who did all they could to defeat Obama in the primaries last spring. I won’t be there and haven’t been there for more than a decade. It is not a forum to advance gay rights; it is a fundraising session designed to make people feel better for backing an organization incapable of passing laws supported by overwhelming majorities of the American people. Oh, and fawning over B-list Hollywood celebrities.