I am disappointed, more than 24 hours after the California Supreme Court announced its decision on marriage, that there is still nothing on the Obama home page taking note of this.
It is a momentous event for Lesbian and Gay people worldwide. In historical importance it ranks one notch below Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark civil rights decision in 1954. Both cases came down to one principle: "separate but equal" is unequal.
All three presidential candidates are doing their best to change the subject. They all issued very brief statements to the mainstream media, saying they support separate, unequal civil unions instead of Gay marriage.
Thus McCain, Clinton and Obama will do nothing to disturb the stigma put on Gay people. This isn't exactly "a new kind of politics," Barack.
I understand not wanting to rock the boat; I don't want the marriage issue turned into the latest cable news trivia obsession either. But there is a way to touch LGBT voters, to reach out to us on a day of great celebration for millions of Gays and Straights alike, without tipping over the boat. An e-mail to supporters would suffice, especially to those of us on the LGBTs for Obama lists, but instead we're getting the same old, tired boasting and fundraising appeals.
You too are playing the same old politics of fear on this issue, when there isn't a dime's worth of difference between you and Hillary on this issue. McCain isn't far away either; whose votes would you lose, the Bigot Caucus's? Man, you're not getting votes from them anyway.
Worse, you're letting progressives down all over the country. Do you think your college students didn't notice your silence? What's your message to Millennials the past 24 hours? You don't have one.
What are your plans for Lesbian and Gay Pride Day? It's coming up in less than a month, and there won't be any primaries left by then, all the voting will be done.
I'll be watching. If all you do is phone it in, I'll know your "new kind of politics" is really just "new and slightly improved from the old kind." Certainly my enthusiasm for your campaign will drop, because I won't see any "fierce urgency of now."
Axelrod isn't the messiah, either. Stop following the old politics of duck and weave and divide!
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