President Barack Obama was AWOL when it came to the marriage vote in Maine and the partnership vote in Washington.
The DNC was worse, actively working against us by sending out an email to Maine Democrats asking them to campaign for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine -- instead of asking them to staff phones in their home state, working for marriage equality.
Despite a supposed commitment to gay civil rights expressed in the DNC platform and by the Obama campaign and administration, there has been relative silence on our issues.
That needs to change.
And thanks to John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay, it’s about to.
Aravosis and Sudbay run the political website Americablog and this week, angry about the administration’s inaction around Maine, they declared they had enough.
So they are launching a financial boycott of Democratics called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give.”
The idea is this:
Gays and lesbians should stop giving money to the DNC and President Obama until ENDA passes and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and DOMA are overturned.
“It's really more of a ‘pause,’" than a boycott,” Aravosis and Sudbay say on Americablog.com.
Boycotts sounds so final, and angry. Whereas this campaign is temporary, and is only meant to help some friends -- President Obama and the Democratic party -- who have lost their way. We are hopeful that via this campaign, our friends will keep their promises.
This is exactly the right thing to do.
Americablog lists almost 40 grievances, large and small, against the president, the leader of the Democratic Party. Together, the grievances paint a portrait of a man who is not just refusing to show leadership on LGBT issues -- he seems unaware of why these issues are important.
And the DNC, despite including gay civil rights in their platform, seems to be hardly aware that, post-campaign, we exist.
The most powerful tools gays and lesbians have to fight this sort of blindness are money and media attention, and this boycott highlights both, because they get less money but more (negative) media attention.
It’s a brilliant strategy.
As Americablog says:
Democratic leaders see the LGBT community as a guaranteed source of cash, regardless of their broken promises. They think we, and those who support us, have nowhere else to go, that there's nothing we can do. It's time to draw our own line in the sand, and use the one thing that matters to the Democratic party: our money.
For this strategy to work, gays, lesbians and our allies all need to join in on the boycott. So get over to Americablog and sign the pledge form -- and stick to it.
But even that’s not far enough. The DNC needs to know that this is not laziness. It’s not just that the economy is lousy or that we want to spend more money on Christmas presents.
So give as much as you can to a gay activist group, national or local, of your choice, instead. Send in the receipt for the donation to the DNC with a note explaining that your money went elsewhere and why.
Will this hurt Democrats? Will it make it more likely that much more repressive Republicans get back in power? Americablog addresses these types of questions. Their answer is no -- I fear that actually, the answer is yes.
But that’s the point.
The DNC and President Obama need to start taking the LGBT community seriously. They will only do that if we start affecting their pocketbook.
Gays and lesbians raise a large amount of funds for the DNC. Until our major issues are addressed, it is time we close the gayTM.
Don’t give until the DNC and Obama have met their obligations to us. We have supported empty promises long enough.
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Aaron Belkin: Obama Is Timid Because Progressives Are Timid
What can we expect from a President who presides over a relatively conservative public, whose party is fractured by a fundamental contradiction, and whose legislative agenda is held hostage by Ben Nelson?
The people who ALREADY have these basic rights and have NO IDEA of the suffering that occurs when rights are absent, and who think the LGBTQ community is being selfish and impatient for demanding the very same rights they expect and enjoy.
You are expecting us to shoulder the burdens every American is dealing with now, PLUS unimaginable financial and emotional suffering. Let's watch YOUR father die, and YOUR mother be denied her husband's 30-year pension, and watch her become homeless soon afterward, if she wasn't already tossed out of the house for being a legal stranger. For starters.
Take today, as we learn that Rhode Island's GOP Governor, Don Carcieri, vetoed a bill allowing funeral decisions for domestic partners. EVIL.
Both groups have been given equal rights not through a 'popular vote', but through american legislation. In both movements, it took people of all types to ban together in taking real action and change the tide. Through the times we've given our support, and too many years later we're now asking for our turn.
It's time we stand together for equality. Not just gay, straight, men, women, black, white, whatever... Simply equality.
That doesn't preclude voting for, campaigning for or donating to gay-friendly Democratic officials or candidates. But Obama and the DNC have been using gays and their supporters as an ATM and that's got to stop.
Increasingly we the people (gay or straight) are loosing power over the our "representatives" who continue to get the lion share of their funds from corporations.
We cannot starve the beast when Wall Street wants them as a pet and has lots of red meat for them.
Its not about political power anymore its about RESULTS that can impact the daily lives of the constituiencies that support the Democratic Party. If the Dems cannot deliver after 20 years - what are we working for?
My message to Dems - Use it or Lose IT (the majorities in the Senate and House)
Gay marriage or the narrow agenda of white gay orgs is not a priority for so many in LGBT community and especially those of color. Yes, even if white gays have suppressed LGBT people of color we do exist and our numbers are increasing fast and we fully support Obama. Our issues are not what white gays are advocating for.
Obama has our full support so beyond the loss of few dollars Obama stands to lose nothing from these strategies of white gays. Infact these calls from white gays just reflect that deep seated racism (they dont condemn CLinton with same intensity for DOMA or DADT) in gay community which got exposed after prop 8 in CA.
Gay agenda and issues which impact gay community are much more broader then just gay marriage. Our President is handling all those issues -- economy, health care, broader immigration reform -- and so on. Despite some of these vocal and visible white gays our President has the support of a huge chuck of LGBT community.
To white/wealthy gays calling for boycott: Please gain some legitmacy first by addressing racism among your own ranks and stop degrading the first Black President who is leading and showing the way to so many in people of color communities as well as the most oppressed segments of our society.
It's not "...coming from only certain very white segment of LGBT community..."
And it's not a single issue agenda either.
And it's not even limited to the LGBT community.
It seems that the reality would not substantiate your talking points and maybe that's why you didn't familiarize yourself with even the most basic facts about this.
We have walked entire lives in second-class citizen shoes and we ARE FED UP.
We are tired of the empty promises, the placations, the condescension.
We are tired of our beloved nation bragging to the world about how freedom is our #1 priority, yet justifying the injustices gays and lesbians live EACH AND EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES.
For decades we have been placated and taken for chumps. Well, it's game time. We're telling our leadership it is time to put their money where their mouth is: Live up to the founding principles of the nation FOR THE BENEFIT OF US ALL or no more cash.
The true selfishness comes from people who are unable to empathize with our finally reached lack of tolerance for excuses and BS and call us unreasonable and selfish. Our straight counterparts wouldn't accept second-class citizenship. Why should we?
I remember when they first started. I was a kid in SF, also fighting for gay rights, but disagreed with their tactics. At the time I thought, "Is that really the best way to get your point across and get people on your side?"
My conclusion: YES. I was wrong to question it then. It worked. As gays and lesbians, as straight women, as human beings, we MUST "act up" for civil rights.
CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL. GLBTs, and women in search of reproductive equity.
I had a small notion that his upcoming troop increase in Afghanistan may somehow link itself with a loosening of DADT... We'll see about that one. Maybe, maybe not.
If not then you LGBT's WILL get what they want but not until this President is on his way out the door, it may be the last thing he signs. Just a feeling I have. But it's better late than NEVER EVER as far as any other political party is concerned.
It's a basic lesson in marketing, if someone likes your product they tell 3 people, if they have grievances about your product they tell TEN people.
The pause in funding is spreading from site to site. I recomended LGBTs also include Stupak anti choice amendment being tossed, and immigration reform to our lists of grievances. Having allies of pro-choice people and Latin@s would get the DNCs attention faster.
I would like the replacement of Tim Kaine as DNC leader as NON NEGOTIABLE, he is totally USELESS.