I'm slightly puzzled by this story. The media was trailing on Friday/Saturday that Obama would be addressing the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday in a bid to re-connect with gay Americans who feel the Democrat administration has so far failed to live up to their campaign promises. I've discussed in earlier posts the general mood among gay activists and lawyers in the US based on my time over there during the summer. I have to confess, I wasn't holding my breath for anything dramatic. It's just as well. The BBC reports the story with a bit of fanfare - 'Obama to end military gay policy'. This is the Clinton era policy that nobody can ask you if you are gay, and you shouldn't tell anyone. If you are 'publicly' gay then you will be discharged. It's a barmy compromise but was arguably better than an all out ban. Obama's latest statement is actually a re-statement of previous commitments. He offered no timetable and no concrete path forward on achieving it. In reality, he gave nothing. America has a very different political and constitutional system to the one we have in the UK, making it much harder to pass reforming legislation and a slower process. However, Obama can show leadership and this simply isn't good enough.
The speech can be viewed via the BBC link and on the HRC website.
Sunday 11 October 2009
Obama and Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posted by Law & Sexuality on 13:45 in armed forces army Obama Politics USA | Comments : 1
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The BBC article mentions another massive issue- the Defense of Marriage Act. He did promise to have this repealed, and has called on Congress to do so. I think that if he gets this done, then perhaps a little faith will be restored in his administration from the LGBT community. The difficulty with Obama is that so much hype was made of his getting into office, and so many expectations were voiced. Now it seems, as he grapples with political contstraints as well as trying to balance his priorities, people are beginning to get annoyed with the lack of progress. Personally, I still have a lot of faith in Obama, but it doesn't look good when he is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (among others), and people are asking 'why?'
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