Obama's Promise

In a completely out of character move, Obama had tweeted this yesterday.



This can almost be interpreted as a promise and not since his campaign days had he made a statement this strong about LGBT issues. In fact, I have no concrete grasp of the president's point of view regarding us gays. There were so much that we expected from he who offered hope, but we were told that LGBT issues are taking a back seat because there were so many other more important things that needs to be processed first. At the same time, we see those more important issues going nowhere; The US unemployment rate is still high and health care reform public option is somewhat lost now. When Obama's approval rate being less than half, Democrats likely to losing the majority and the rise of bat-shit crazy teabaggers, it's understandable that the gays are in a panic; it's unsure that this relatively reasonable president could get a second term.

It isn't until the relentless efforts of Get Equal and the recent wave of gay teenager suicides that bring the subject of equality to the forefront. Meanwhile, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett had called homosexuality a "lifestyle choice", Obama had stated that he is in support of civil union but not gay marriage and at one point in time last night his Department of Justice attorneys were preparing to appeal the federal judge ruling of the overturn of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We have no idea what Obama's real feeling gay issues, he is after all a heterosexual black male who's culturally more inclined to be homophobic or at least more conservative towards homosexuality, and who knows about the viewpoints of the people surrounding him?



At the end, repealing DADT is but a small step toward equality. Sure, you can openly serve in the military but the other kids will still pick on you. It's just like being in the schoolyard, you can tell people you're gay but you'll get bullied because of it, the sergeant could potentially treat you differently because his beliefs tell him that you're an abomination. It's horrible to say but serving in the military is not very relevant for the majority of gays and lesbians. For now, while the DADT ruling is posed to be appealed, the firing of gay and lesbian soldiers has been halted. Pushing forward, to make every gay and lesbian's life easier would be implementing anti-bullying rules in school and legalizing gay marriage.

And so we wait.