Obama's Big Gay Speech: HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In

President Obama will address the Human Rights Campaign -- the largest gay rights fundraiser in the country -- this Saturday with a keynote appearance that has been dubbed his "Big Gay Speech" by the LGBT blogging community. A number of HuffPost bloggers have weighed in with their hopes, doubts and expectations. Scroll down for the roundup.

Comments

[GatorGrrrl]

The worst copout is worrying about the safety of gay solders. This kind of thinking is really insulting to our military and underestimates their ability to behave like grownups. This was the same reasoning that kept black soldiers segregated.

[Konnie]

my father served in the 101st in WWII. he lived long enough to be pretty pissed off about DA/DT. he was not politically correct. but he said he had served with some pretty brave and stand up guys who were "a little light in the loafers" (his words)
he said" what those queers ought to do is stand up and say 'hell no we will not serve". they'd be in
a uniform faster than you could say "gay".

[truthartbeauty]

Maybe you just have to be of a certain age to fully appreciate what president Obama said last night. maybe it is the youth factor that makes some so impatient, so unappreciative, I dont know but as a 60 year old gay man who expects very little anyway, I totally appreciate what he said and I believe him, I respect him, and I thank him for it.

[wrb]

Well I'm going to vote Republican unless the democrats meat production. It is a matter of basic animal rights and morality.

I going to fight the Democrats who compromise on the issues most important to me even if that means fighting for people who oppose everything I support.

[wrb]

that was supposed to be "end meat production"

[Blaster]

Yes go vote for the Republicans. Even better send money to Palin she probably will satisfy your needs for that party. I agree the dems are washey but the Repubs are a disgrace to the nation.

[racje]

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." That one hasn't worked out so well, historically.

[demrepub]

"I will" in Obamaspeak means "not in your lifetime". He's trolling for votes but like all his other promises don't hold your breath.

[jcwtts1]

nonsense on about 5 different levels.

J

[24hourrifle]

besides the fact that it oughtta be done simply because its the right thing to do,repealing DADT oughtta be done RIGHT NOW for political reasons.he may not have the numbers on the marriage issue,but americans-and more importantly,active military-have rejected DADT.at a time when pres obama is taking hits on healthcare and the "liberal media" seems to be afraid to point out the absurdity of the majority of the republicans stances,repealing DADT would essentially be a dare to republicans to come out and oppose it.they would immediately expose themselves as the hypocritic­al,nonsens­ical,fact challenged fools which most of them are.

[wrb]

DODT was originally an executive order but congress made it a law.

How do you propose Obama end it "right now"?

[Deadgnome]

Speeches and rhetoric mean nothing on this subject. Action and viable, observable reform is the only thing that will sate me and the millions of Americans that are STILL not treated like "Americans." Whatever that term means now.

This is about selective freedom, yet another example from our "storied" history of hatred, bigotry, racism, and ignorance. This country, along with most of the world is a pigsty, like Morrissey would say.

[jcwtts1]

How many of those millions voted republican... last I heard it was about 30 percent.

J

[aftershock]

So if they all vote Democrat maybe than the Democrats can stand up for what's right huh? Party over principles always.... people like you are truly sad sad human beings.

[Venise Alstergren]

Why, in the name of God, are Americans so preoccupied with what other people do in bed? In defies logic, it's juvenile, asinine and none of your business. Which would seem to be the same basis on which America bases her foreign policy.

[Deadgnome]

Because many Americans hate themselves and have been blinded by their faith. It is none of their business, likewise it is none of my business what they do either. Face it, America is literally a walking, talking joke.

[JWB2012]

Without realizing you hit the nail right on the head. "what they do in bed..." is how most see gays. I have gay friends and there is really no discernible difference in their relationships to straight ones. It's called LOVE folks. Just like most, gays LOVE their partners. But the homophobes can't get beyond the "sex" they see happening in their minds eye. Gay, just like straight, is about relationship which also happens ( like as with ALL of us) to include sex. I would suggest to the homophobes out there to just come out of YOUR closet! You'll feel a whole lot better, I assure you.

[CrazyStuffThis]

JWB2012 - Thank you. My thoughts exactly. Why do homophobes focus on sex. It's not the fault of gays that homophobes are obsessed with thinking about gay sex. Homophobes seemingly think about gay sex ALOT more often than gays do. The question they should ask themselves should be: "Why should I care about about two people who want to pledge love and fidelity to each other?" The answer, I think should be, "Care deeply. Their pledges to each other will make our communities stronger." Aren't the homophobes the same people that rail on about the sin of having sex before marriage?

[Statler N Waldorf]

Obama won't veto any of the GLBT legislation if it makes it to his desk. If. Don't expect any serious leadership from him, don't expect him to employ stop-loss or any speeches at a joint session of Congress demanding these bills be sent to his desk. He won't oppose the legislation but that's all you will get out of him.

Can't expect any help from Democratic leadership, either. Harry Reed's too weak a leader, says he can't find even a single Senator to sponsor DOMA repeal-not even himself. Can't expect much from the DNC-half the candidates they plan to run in 2010 supported the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 or other antiGLBT measures.

The only way any of these bills-the DADT repeals of Murphy & Gillibrand, ENDA, the Matt Sheppard Act, DOMA repeal or anything else-is going to make it out of Congress is if we get active and put serious pressure on our legislators. We have got to reach the voting public even in GLBT hostile places and get them to call in their support for us to their legislators, too. We have to donate what we can to our Congressional allies, run our own candidates for Congress to replace our Congressional enemies. We have to come together and march, not just on DC, but on every Senator and Congressperson's office in America. We have to go all out, and provide the leadership Obama, Reed, and the DNC won't provide.

[jcwtts1]

well, I disagree, I would call passing the hate crimes bill help, but hey, what do I know. Instead of writing letters send checks. Especially to murphy who is going to get his clock cleaned for supporting this bill.

J

[songoftherushes]

I would never join a club that didn't want me. How about every gay person in the military outs themselves on the same day? The military might get a terrible shock and find themselves in the very awkward position of having to fire a whole lot of people: friends, heroes, highly trained and valuable people.
And if they do all get fired? Blackwater pays better.......

[wilray]

The military should not be equated with a club. There are certain responsibilities that go along with military service, first and foremost the willingness to lay your life on the line for your country. There are also certain privileges that we give to military personnel via the G. I. Bill, favoritism in hiring, housing loans and in education. In addition, they can shop at the PX, and they get the benefit of healthcare via the Veteran's administration. Those not belonging to the "club" do not get those benefits. Through the years the military has seen fit to include all ethnicities and women in the "club." In times of conscription, "the draft," the military has seen fit to ignore any rules regarding self professed homosexuality - you say you're gay you get drafted anyway. So it seems to me they don't have as big a problem with the idea as they claim. Read the case of Perry Watkins.

http://www.answers.com/topic/perry-watkins

As it goes even Clubs must bend with the times. How can a country club be included in PGA tournaments but refuse to have Tiger Woods, or discriminate in their membership based on race. Given the fact that so many of our allies allow Gays to serve openly in the military,including Canada, the U.K., Israel, and South Africa; it should be en embarrassment that the U.S. has not ended this discriminatory practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation_and_military_service

[mtrav]

Americans don't embarrass well.

[SiberianRat]

Good one! Let's up the number of gay mercenaries.

[CrazyStuffThis]

Unfortunately, these brave men and women get dishonorable discharges when they are tagged with the label of "homosexual." And I'm sure you're Blackwater remark was just tongue and cheek, but they are EXTREME fundamentalist Christians who are avid homphobes. Go in for an interview there and plan on never coming home . . . EVER.

[Kimballlcorson]

It should be kept in mind Obama did not seek or ask for the prize. It was awarded to him by others. He did not award it to himself. Therefore, his detractors should not lampoon him at all on this score.

[roolark]

I live in Arizona, and knowing that Obama did not stand a chance here during the '08 elections, I went with groups of people to New Mexico to campaign for him door-to-door because that was a "battleground" state.

I;m gay, and participate in many gay functions and protests; I organized a group to go from Phoenix to Irvine for Meet-in-the-middle to protest prop 8 being upheld by the CA Supreme Court.

He keeps is promises to us, or I will:

1. I will not donate or volunteer for Obama or any politician until I have seen actions to go along with the sweet words.

2. Pray that Obama has a primary contender that cares. That person will win my vote, donations and effort.

3. If there is no primary contender, I will not vote for Obama or any like-minded democrat. Period.

4. I would be more than happy to organize groups to promote write-ins for president or campaign for any 3rd party candidate that supports the GLBT community.

Any promises that us democrats were hoping Obama would keep will have been kept or broken by the time the next elections come around. If Obama has broken those promises with which he won my vote then he is not worthy of voting for again.

Worst case is that if the repugs retake the presidency (disgusting) because of a lack of democratic turn out maybe the spineless democrats we elected will go get back-braces.

[loria]

Obama isn't going to support gay marriage, and he never said he would. He'll leave it up to the states. A hate crimes bill will pass soon which will be vital in expanding hate crimes legislation to include those who are gay. In states like mine, SC, there is is no hate crime law. In most hate crimes the federal ct can prosecute, but you are out of luck in states like SC if you are a victim of a hate crime based on sexual orientation. Ask the family of Sean Kennedy, who saw their son's killer get a matter of months in jail for killing their son simply because he was gay. There was no hate crime enhancement because we don't have that law here. DADT will be repealed. Progress will be made. Whether it's enough for you is yet to be seen. As for me, I will give him a few more months. I do think DADT needs to be repealed and Congress should get on that. In the meantime Obama needs to make sure that no one from the military is kicked out because of sexual orientation.

Progress is being made. I want to see more, and you certainly do. But, don't give up because it isn't happening fast enough. I believe it will happen in the next two years.

[CJ1]

Um, yeah, but he just said he did in his speech.
In other words, you are wrong. He just said it. You should watch him actually speak, rather than repeating something you heard from another random cynic.

[HSmith]

Let's keep beating up the only president pushing our initatives into actual LAW....Let's bring this one down so he can be replaced with one of the other 43 presidents that really looked out for our best interests......That is what I going to advocate for.....

[wayfarer1]

I respect your position. I too will not tolerate a democratic party that does not live up to their rhetoric. At this point I am not certain what will happen but I will know by January. I am afraid our country may need another party.

[livingfree]

Here's the problem. Where is your hope and patience? I'm not gay but I do feel that the President is going to do what's right for the gay community and anybody else. Give him the time to help you. Trying to pressure him to do something what's right for the gay community isn't right. You have a choice to support whomever but whoever it may be, please be dependable and trusted with your support and not a fair weather friend or supporter. There's still some hard decision to be made and we need to give the President the chance to do it. Rome wasn't built over night or by one person and the issues that the President is facing for us will not be solved over night or even in four years. It will take a lot of planning and the going back and forth of Congress to put things in place. What I can say to you, is to focus that energy of yours to something positive and please continue to support our President. His power comes from people like us supporting him and making positive steps in our lives no matter what is going on. He needs us to stand strong or hold ourselves together and not to come unglued. Every day is something negative going on and or someone saying something negative. Please look for the sweet quiet blessings and move forward because your blessing is just around the corner.

[CitizenKane16]

The fact is that we elected this man to do a job. I equate it to hiring an employee - my choice is not to micromanage. You give them a timeframe ( in this case, 4 years) and a a project list - if you've chosen your employee wisely, the job will get done. Of course, there should be a system of checks and balances but, of course, you know that your employee cannot do everything at once. Our President has the most difficult job this world has to offer - not only that, but he has a group against him whose sole focus is to make sure he fails - how much worse could it get? What we need to do is to support this President in every way that we can which means putting others into place to help him complete all that's on his project list (Congress, Senate) - VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. The least that we can do is to provide support to Mr. Obama since we gave him our vote of confidence last year - give him a chance to get his job done without all the threats of withholding our votes and donating against him. Nothing like a little pressure, right?

[jcwtts1]

Or maybe they will abandon your issues completely in order to get the conservative dems who outnumber you to vote for them. Let me do some basic election stuff for you real quick. Hispanics won NM for the President. They also won FL, NV and CO. Blacks won the north east, women won every state that we won, and young people won every state we won. Gays delivered what state? So, nationally, you guys don't have the muscle to threaten anyone. Take your ball and go home. See how it helps you. On the other hand you have tons of juice for house and senate races. Tons. And you wasted it. There are 5 open senate seats and you guys, as a political group, funded none of the people trying for those seats. You should have dumped that vaunted LGBT ATM on the FL, MO, OH and NH race and picked the dems running for those seats. You could have done the same in IL, in CO, in NC and even in KY. But instead you guys waited. You aren't the only ones. I've given the exact same speech the AA boards on here and on jack and jill and the root

[greygrey]

I wonder how many of you that blog march too. i wonder do you call your Senators and threaten to hold your vote. I wonder do you just blog and complain. I am just wondering. Yes, we need a third party.We need a congress that does the bidding of the people. See, that is what complainers do. They don't change anything. They just complain that things did not change. So, get off your behinds and start chaning. If we have a President who is at least trying, let's put a congress in that we help him to bring about change. i live in New York. There will be a march on Wednesday october 13th on 14th street sponsored by Moveon. Also, i will be organizing a march against Schumer for suggesting some Opt out Public Option. Mayb3e I see see some of you at the march. Or maybe you can't march because you are too busy blogging.

[roolark]

Here's a tip you can learn from the Republican Party. It goes like this:

1. Blog - get everyone riled up.
2. March - Show everyone you're riled up
3. FIB - find a news outlet to exaggerate your numbers (like FOX) - just kidding, don't fib, we'e not like those republican losers.

Anyway, my point: Providing you balance your activities well, blogging can assist with marching. I blog, comment on blogs, organize, march, vote, protest, donate etc.

Don't think that because ANY OF US on here are blogging or commenting that no contribution is being made by or as a result of, our actions.

[SiberianRat]

S/He has a point though--it's easy to complain on a blog. The less public and less dramatic ways of writing, calling, donating, etc. often appeal less to those who like to make noise but leave the actual work to others.

[hapiday]

"Hapiday is a charter member of the "civil rights for me but not for thee" crowd."

I'm not a charter member of anything. An executive order to repeal DADT is not the way to respond to this issue. I do believe gay rights is a civil rights issue. However, as present law dealing with the voting rights act Ronald Reagan in 1982 to sign into law an extension of the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. Every 25 years congress decides whether black people have the right to vote. This is supposed to be a civil right but it isn't unless white people say it's so. We are skating on thin ice hoping that our voting rights will continue. We received a band aid to heal a civil and human rights problem.

The repeal of DADT and DOMA cannot be fixed with a band aid. President Obama using an executive order to overturn a law made by congress would basically be a band aid and throwing a crumb at the gay community. It's not President Obama that needs to be convinced it's Democratic and a Republican Congress.

[DEMatHEART]

AMEN!

Doesn't anyone watch C-span anymore? This past Tuesday, October 6, at 10:03 PM, Iraq Veteran and Congressman Patrick Murphy (PA, 8th District) introduced his sponsorship of the Military Readiness/­Enhancemen­t Act, which includes THE REPEAL OF DON'T ASK/DON'T TELL. He has worked feverishly to enlist the co-sponsorship of his fellow representatives. They have approximately 180 co-sponsors to the bill as of this week. They need 218 votes in the House to actually pass it. So, they're very close to this goal! www.patrickmurphy.house.gov

AND, President Obama has said that he will definitely sign the bill when it comes across his desk. Barney Frank is right - we should be lobbying our own representatives and Senators to pass the repeal. It's time. And an executive order can just be undone by the next president. IT SHOULD BE A LAW!!!

PLEASE - go on C-Span.org (or youtube,.com) and hear Cong. Murphy's impassioned speech, and listen to the moving testimony from gay soldiers and fellow representatives alike.

The news media hasn't covered this significant event all week. Instead, the pundits keep speculating about why Obama hasn't "addressed" gay issues as he promised. Obama IS acting on it! ACTION IS BEING TAKEN IN A VERY SOLID WAY. WATCH, PUBLICIZE AND SUPPORT!!!

[CitizenKane16]

Please go on www.opencongress.org in order to show support for this bill - you can also link to write your representative as well.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1283/show

[SiberianRat]

Rachel Maddow covered it. I agree with you and hapiday.

[tabaqui]

EXACTLY! We want the repeal to be done correctly, and *not* a sitting duck for the next President who disagrees with it.

[StJames]

I think it is time for a grass roots movement for a third party. And it should NOT start with electing a President who doesn't have enough support in the congress to get his agenda passed. That's Obama's problem. I would like to see a party that is fiscally responsible ( lets cut the damn military budget to pay for the social programs we need) and socially progressive...or crazy radical liberal if you like. We need to get a few congressmen elected, then a few senators and build the party that way from the bottom up.
Like many of you I donated money to Obama's campaign that I really couldn't afford. Like many of you I am disappointed that he hasn't kept more of his campaign promises. I think DADT is deplorable and I believe in equal rights and protections for everyone. This issue is something he could have accomplished with the flick of his wrist & a signature. But I'm thinking...perhaps this is part of the grand strategy...can you hear the exploding heads of all those homophobes when he over turns DADT? They will forget all about the health care reform issue...so perhaps, it's a matter of timing and a way to kill two birds with one stone.

I realize it is difficult to be patient when so much in your life is adversely impacted by the stupid laws and policies that are hangovers from a puritanical (& hypocritical) legacy. Do not give up hope.

[CitizenKane16]

My response to you is taken directly from DemaHeart above (thank you DemaHeart):

This past Tuesday, October 6, at 10:03 PM, Iraq Veteran and Congressman Patrick Murphy (PA, 8th District) introduced his sponsorship of the Military Readiness/­Â­Enhanceme­n­t Act, which includes THE REPEAL OF DON'T ASK/DON'T TELL. He has worked feverishly to enlist the co-sponsorship of his fellow representatives. They have approximately 180 co-sponsors to the bill as of this week. They need 218 votes in the House to actually pass it. So, they're very close to this goal! www.patrickmurphy.house.gov

AND, President Obama has said that he will definitely sign the bill when it comes across his desk. Barney Frank is right - we should be lobbying our own representatives and Senators to pass the repeal. It's time. And an executive order can just be undone by the next president. IT SHOULD BE A LAW!!!

PLEASE - go on C-Span.org (or youtube,.com) and hear Cong. Murphy's impassioned speech, and listen to the moving testimony from gay soldiers and fellow representatives alike.

The news media hasn't covered this significant event all week. Instead, the pundits keep speculating about why Obama hasn't "addressed" gay issues as he promised. Obama IS acting on it! ACTION IS BEING TAKEN IN A VERY SOLID WAY. WATCH, PUBLICIZE AND SUPPORT!!!

My addition to this is show support for this bill- you can also link to write your representative.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1283/show