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What Happens After the January 10th DOMA Protest?

This Saturday, LGBT folks and allies will participate in a national protest calling for the repeal of DOMA. Organized by Join the Impact, this protest will involve gathering signatures on a national petition that will be delivered to President Obama. These are good things.

But protest and petitions are only as powerful as the activism that proceeds them. To have a real impact, we should move quickly into lobbying mode, organizing teams of people across the country to meet with Congress members and advocate for an equality agenda.

We'd also do well to take notes from MoveOn's playbook (and to partner with MoveOn whenever possible). Based on an online voting process  among its members, MoveOn has announced its top priorities for 2009: providing universal healthcare; promoting economic recovery; building a green economy and stopping climate change; and ending the war in Iraq. Their next step is to lobby Congress around these priorities. To do this, they are conducting a series of grassroots trainings across the country so people can develop lobbying skills. That's smart, good organizing. We should be doing the same, and working with them. 

Old school thinking suggests that the LGBT community's legislative priorities focus entirely on LGBT issues (repealing DOMA; ENDA; repealing DADT; hate crimes legislation). But this is a new political era, and we need to adapt to it rapidly. Here's what a new school agenda might look like:

1) Universal health care
2) Economic recovery and job creation
3) Passing an inclusive ENDA
4) Increased HIV/AIDS funding

This approach addresses issues that affect many LGBT people; expresses a commitment to the pressing needs facing our nation; communicates an understanding that we are no longer living in the era of single-issue or identity politics; and constitutes an achievable agenda for Obama's first term.

Beyond Rick Warren, A Whole Nation

Sullivan writes one of the better pieces I've seen on the Warren selection, arguing that if we rush to judgment and isolate ourselves because of this slight, we risk missing a very real shift that's happening in our body politic. Beyond that, he grounds this moment in the moral terms that we need to see it in. It is fine to express anger and hurt about Warren's message. But we cannot stagnate in these emotions, for they preclude us from engaging -- with openness, love and compassion -- with those millions of people who share his beliefs. This is the America we live in, after all; at every turn we must recommit to its promises more deeply.

Sullivan is excerpted here:

There is no question that gays and lesbians have made enormous strides in explaining who we are in the last couple of decades. There is equally no question that Obama has substantively committed his administration to more gay inclusion and gay equality than any president in history. We absolutely do need to be vigilant on this. But we should also understand Obama's attempt to bridge some gaps in America that the Clintons, with their boomer baggage and Dick Morris cynicism, couldn't and didn't. This is what matters. Do gays and lesbians want to be a part of this - or sit fuming on the sidelines at symbolic slights?
 . . .

If I cannot pray with Rick Warren, I realize, then I am not worthy of being called a Christian. And if I cannot engage him, then I am not worthy of being called a writer. And if we cannot work with Obama to bridge these divides, none of us will be worthy of the great moral cause that this civil rights movement truly is.

The bitterness endures; the hurt doesn't go away; the pain is real. But that is when we need to engage the most, to overcome our feelings to engage in the larger project, to understand that not all our opponents are driven by hate, even though that may be how their words impact us. To turn away from such dialogue is to fail ourselves, to fail our gay brothers and sisters in red state America, and to miss the possibility of the Obama moment.

It can be hard to take yes for an answer. But yes is what Obama is saying. And we should not let our pride or our pain get in the way.

A Gay Man On Obama's Dance Card

Obama made headlines by dancing with Ellen during the campaign. Now, he ought to dance with a gay man at an inaugural ball. Here are 4 reasons why:

1) It would send a message about his support for the LGBT community and his recognition of the humanity of same-sex couples;

2) While it wouldn't lessen the damage of Rick Warren's prominent role in the inaugural ceremony, it would certainly complicate the narrative of this moment;

3) It's right out of JFK's calculating inaugural playbook. In 1961, JFK refrained from making bold statements about civil rights in his inaugural ceremony, but he did dance with several African-American women at inaugural balls, as reported by Thurston Clark in Ask Not. In doing so, he made a subtle but pointed statement  in  favor of an America in which inter-racial couples could not only dance  together but -- by extension in our collective narrative -- fall in love, marry and have kids; and

4) Gay men are -- trust me -- very fun to dance with. 

The 1961 Inauguration

The debate about Warren's participation in the inaugural ceremony made me wonder what JFK's ceremony was like. The speedy, friendly reference librarians at the John F. Kennedy Library report that there were four prayers in the inaugural ceremony, reflecting the Christian and Jewish traditions.

The invocation was delivered by Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston; the benediction by Rabbi Nelson Glueck, President of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. Prayers were also led by Archbishop Iakovos, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America and Reverend John Barclay, Central Christian Church, Austin, Texas. Cushing's invocation included these words (as printed in the NYT, 1/21/61):

"we ask Thee, oh Almighty God, to enlighten us:  . . . revere in every man that divine spark which makes him our brother- that human spark that can make him our friend-and that personal spark which makes him himself."

Kennedy moved with utter calculation around civil rights issues and it is interesting to read his inauguration through the lens of racial inclusion. It took place 7 years after Brown and 3 years before the Civil Rights Act. Images from the day show Kennedy surrounded by a largely white crowd of dignitaries and supporters. Ask Not, a book about the inauguration by Thurston Clark reports that 5,000 African-Americans were at the ceremony, considered record attendance at that time. Marian Andersen performed at the inauguration, as she had at Eisenhower's. While there were apparently gestures towards inclusion over the course of the inaugural celebration, it does not appear -- from my limited research -- that the inaugural ceremony itself was marked by explicit acknowledgment of the struggle for civil rights.

 

Why Warren's Selection Is A(nother) Wake Up Call

I am still wrestling with what to make of Rick Warren's selection to lead the Inaugural Invocation. Like Prop 8, it feels like another slap in the face, another acutely clear snapshot of the work we still need to do. Frankly, I'd rather know where we stand and move forward strategically than remain misguidedly optimistic.

Through a political lens, there are two ways that I read Obama's selection of Rick Warren: Obama's trying to find common cause around issues of global poverty and HIV/AIDS (with a heterosexual bent) with the emerging generation of evangelical leadership; and he's sending a clear message that differences of belief about LGBT rights will not, as they so long have, stand in the way of this coalition building. (Warren equates homosexuality with pedophilia and incest; Obama opposes gay marriage but has made strong statements in favor of gay civil rights and recognizing the humanity of gay people).

While it is right for the LGBT community to register its outrage and hurt, we must also act quickly to adapt to a new political climate: We are no longer living in the age of either single issue or identity politics. The LGBT community needs to develop a clear-sighted 8-year strategy for the pieces of legislation we want to get passed within two Obama terms, and this legislative agenda must extend beyond LGBT civil rights. It should, for example, include legislation related to HIV/AIDS funding both domestically and globally.

LGBT people also care about global poverty and the AIDS pandemic (which is both a global and domestic issue). We cannot, and should not, absent ourselves from the table of communities coming together around these shared concerns. The LGBT community has long years of experience working around HIV/AIDS and the opportunity to share this knowledge and these skills with a global community. If Rick Warren is serious about addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis than he needs to be working with LGBT people, and he needs to approach the disease from a holistic framework that sees the virus for what it is: a pandemic that affects all identities. 

Beyond this, I cannot help but see this moment as another reminder of the great challenge before the LGBT community: we must both assert our humanity and engage directly -- and with love and compassion -- with those who hold Warren's beliefs.

Obama Chooses Rick Warren to Deliver Inaugural Invocation

Rick Warren Endorses Prop 8
Obama has invited Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to deliver the Inaugural Invocation. As reported on the NYT, The inaugural ceremony will also include Aretha Franklin, poet Elizabeth Alexander (a very cool choice), and Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, co-founder of the SCLC.

Choosing Warren is a controversial move in the eyes of the LGBT community. Warren is many things including: the leader of one of our country's biggest churches; an evangelical leader who has been vocal on the moral imperative of addressing the AIDS crisis; and an outspoken opponent of gay marriage who resoundingly endorsed Proposition 8 and who believes that opposing gay marriage is a "humanitarian issue" (see video). Because of his very public opposition to gay marriage, this choice sends a stinging message to the LGBT community. It made even my pragmatic stomach drop.

But the plot thickens when one recalls that Obama chose Peter Gomes, an openly gay pastor and theologian, to give the benediction on Election Night. Read the two choices together and you get the kind of conciliatory move that Obama's also going for in his cabinet picks. But this isn't just about political maneuvers: this is about the tone that will be set as the new administration takes office.

On a strategic note I think this sends a clear enough signal that LGBT rights will not be a priority for Obama in the first few years of his presidency.

The Tentative Return of Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer is back in the public square, this time as a (surprisingly conciliatory) columnist for Slate. TNR runs an interesting piece by Jacob Gershman about what quite Spitzer needs to do to earn back the public's good will. According to Gershman the Slate columns aren't likely to do the trick. One problem: he doesn't yet seem sorry enough.

Spitzer strikes me as a Gary Hartish figure: someone with enormous political talents and an ego to match; someone who may now be confined to the political sidelines and bubbling over with kinetic frustration over not having a platform to enact his ideas. 

The Future of Obama's Grassroots Ops

In this TNR article, E.J. Dionne outlines the scenarios being discussed for what the legions of volunteers activated through the Obama campaign might do -- and be asked to do -- next.  Excerpt:

Democrats believe (and many Republicans fear) that Obama allowed his party and its allies to take an enormous leap forward in both technological sophistication and grass-roots activism. Preserving those gains and building on them is a high priority for a man who sees organizing not only as instrumental, but also as a way of transforming democracy itself.

CA Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Prop 8

The CA Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the validity of Prop 8, according to a press release issued by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The challenge was brought by NCLR, Lambda Legal and the ACLU. It's excerpted here:

Today the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, which passed by a narrow margin of 52 percent on November 4.  In an order issued today, the Court agreed to hear the case and set an expedited briefing schedule. The Court also denied an immediate stay.   

Wait & See

Everyone is writing about Sarah Palin it seems, and that's partly because the story that she has projected onto the grand American screen is a good one. We don't know how it will end, and it has thrown off-balance media, wonks and Democratic politicians -- everyone it seems, but John McCain, who is finding his stride by his running mate's side. My theory is that we're all going to keep getting it wrong: this story is unfolding in real time and each stab at putting a frame around it becomes another part of the story.

Among other effects, Palin's appearance on the ticket has short-circuited the common-but-thin argument that circulates in lefty circles: that we need a woman in the White House.  So goes the prose from the mission statement of Emily's List, an organization committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office:

When women are involved in the political process, our democracy is truly representative. When women make policy, the needs of women and families are not ignored.

It's not that simple, and it never will be, and Palin is proof positive that it also ought not be. Palin, like most of us, is many things at once: woman, conservative, sharp shooter, Barracuda, mother, possible book banner, and, now, possible VP. When it comes to identity, there is and can be no theory of everything.

Judith Warner and Michelle Cottle seem to have been at the same Republican rally in Northern Virginia this week. Both wrote about Palin and the rally this week, Warner going introspective and Cottle veering for energetic fashionista commentary. But the note that each ends on is worth pausing over:

Here's an excerpt from Warner's piece:

No, it wasn’t funny, my morning with the hockey and the soccer moms, the homeschooling moms and the book club moms, the joyful moms who brought their children to see history in the making and spun them on the lawn, dancing, when music played. It was sobering. It was serious. It was an education.

“Palin Power” isn’t just about making hockey moms feel important. It’s not just about giving abortion rights opponents their due. It’s also, in obscure ways, about making yearnings come true — deep, inchoate desires about respect and service, hierarchy and family that have somehow been successfully projected onto the figure of this unlikely woman and have stuck.

and here's one from Cottle's piece:

Squeezed up against the press pen were Lori Conklin (requisite red shirt, khakis, shoulder-length brown bob with bangs) and her daughter, a Kindergarten-aged pixie in a pink-and-green tiered skirt. The Conklin gals had gotten up at 4:30 to drive up from Charlottesville for the event, and Lori's eyes looked a little tired behind her gold wire-rimmed glasses. Of all the people I spoke with, Conklin had the story that should perhaps most worry Democrats. Make no mistake: A native Texan, Conklin is a loyal Republican. She backed Bush in 2000 and has never much cared for McCain, though she would have held her nose and voted for him. But in the wake of the Palin pick, she is committed to actively fighting for the cause and had just signed up to volunteer for the campaign. She doesn't agree with Palin on all the issues. (For instance, Conklin supports stem-cell research.) But she sees Palin as someone like her, someone who understands her life and her struggles. "She's a mother of five," marveled Conklin, herself a single mom working as an anesthesiologist and researcher at the University of Virginia. "I only have one, and I know how tired I am at the end of the day." (Conklin adopted her daughter from the Republic of Georgia and is in the processing of adopting a second child from Armenia.) Also like Palin, Conklin hails from a tiny town in West Texas. ("We didn't even have a McDonald's," she recalled.) And she admires that Palin "started small" and succeeded without riding anyone else's coattails. "She is the epitome of the American success story in politics," said Conklin.

And so it went. Woman after woman, girl after girl shared their excitement about Sarah Palin. Kristina Schnack Aotlus, director of children's ministries for Del Ray United Methodist in Woodbridge, had gotten up at 6:30 to drop off her four- and two-year old sons before the event. "But I wanted to bring my daughter with me," she explained, reaching to stroke the duck-fuzzy blonde head of the six-month-old harnessed snugly against mom's pink t-shirt. "My husband is a Democrat, so talk around our dinner table has been exciting," joked Aotlus. But even he's excited by the Palin pick, she says. "And he thinks it was a good strategic pick to help get some of the straggling Hillary voters."