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Andy Tobias’ Thirty Obama Accomplishments For The LGBT Community

05/18/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Andy Tobias has done the LGBT Community the favor of trying to illuminate us on what President Barack Obama has done for us. The list of some thirty different items where President Obama has supported the LGBT Community is rather illuminating. The first thing that comes to mind is that the President has done little to actively push for many of the things that Tobias has begun to crow about.

Tobias is, largely, trying very hard to get the LGBT Community to not stay home this election cycle the way that they did in Massachusetts in protest for the slow pace of change. While President Obama has done many of the things that he could do unilaterally and on his own, he has certainly not pushed for equality in any sense other than with some nice words. The perception is that he publicly wants something to be done for the LGBT Community, but privately is more than willing to hold his fire for anything.

Some of these points, such as the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor are just plain ridiculous. The idea that President Barack Obama would have nominated a conservative Supreme Court Justice instead of Sotomayor is insulting to anyone reading this list. Mr. Tobias might want to consider the fac that there were calls for President Obama to appoint someone who was openly lesbian or gay to the bench, and that he would have been facing a major revolt not only from his own party but from the grassroots and netroots if he had dared to appoint someone more conservative than Sotomayor, who is not, it should be pointed out, not exactly the most liberal judge he could have appointed. What is more, why not mention the nomination of Elena Kagan to the bench too? Despite rumors that Kagan is a lesbian, the White House has done everything that they can in order to prove that she’s straight except produce a boyfriend or secret husband. He could have appointed an open lesbian or gay man to the bench and shown that he was truly on our side. Instead, he chose someone who has rumors circulating about her, but if she is lesbian, she is so far in the closet she can see Narnia.

What Mr. Tobias seems to be oblivious to is just how condescending his list is. Many of these things President Obama could do without expending any real effort. He certainly did not have to put up much of a fight to get any of these through. Most of these are things he could just sign off on and be done with.

Mr. Tobias, the LGBT Community you are part of is no longer willing to accept nice speeches, pretty words, and tokenism. Pledging to do things is one thing. Actually doing them is another. Before you hand us another list in two years about what President Obama has accomplished, think on this. What we- your sisters, brothers and transsiblings out here in the real world- want from Obama is not to have him give us platitudes, but rather, for him to work hard for us. He squandered a year learning that Congress has to be hands on these days. This is something that he should have known going in. He can either choose to fight, or enjoy a nice retirement in 2012. I just hope that his lack of action does not lose the Democrats their majority this year.

Below is the list that Tobias put together. I had thought about going over it one point at a time, but it is pretty clear just what is on this list.

Oh yes, and what you do not see are things like his appointment of a homophobe to the oil spill clean up panel. How much silver have they been paying you Mr. Tobias?

1. Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
2. Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
3. Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide full partnership benefits to federal employees
4. Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
5. Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
6. Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamation since 2000
7. Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
8. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King
9. Appointed the first transgender DNC member in history
10. Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
11. Committed to ensuring that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
12. Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders — the nation’s first ever — funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAGE
13. Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
14. Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation’s history
15. Supported lower taxes for same-sex couples who receive health benefits from employers
16. Hired and appointed a record number of qualified LGBT Americans, including more than 10 Senate-confirmed appointments
17. Sworn in Ambassador David Huebner
18. Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education
19. Appointed Sonia Sotomayor, instead of a conservative who would have tilted the Court even further to the right and virtually doomed our rights for a generation. To wit (quoting McCain): “I’ve said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I’ve said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I’ve said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts. I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito [as possible]”
20. Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
21. Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
22. Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the President’s historic NAACP address (“The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”) . . . to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation (“Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things”) and his Mothers Day proclamation (“Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a grandmother, or a guardian. Mother’s Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate these extraordinary caretakers”) . . . to creating the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies . . . to including the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of Goldman Sachs in the small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange . . . to welcoming four gay couples to its first State Dinner
23. Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
24. Spoken out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast (“We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”)
25. Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell, in the meantime dialing back on discharges
26. Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study
27. Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
28. Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage
29. Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons.
30. Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.

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