Oct 10 2009
Obama woos the GLBT community
President Barack Obama can expect a chilly reception tonight when he speaks to the Human Rights Campaign dinner. The dinner comes just days after a gay Education Department official, Kevin Jennings, and a lesbian nominee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum, became targets for conservative groups around the nation.
Obama has actually nominated around 100 openly gay and lesbian people to administration jobs, but a lack of action on issues like don’t ask don’t tell, expanding same-sex marriage and prohibiting workplace discrimination has many in the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transvestite (GLBT) community unsure if they made the right choice supporting the President during the campaign.
Steve Hildebrand, a former top campaign adviser to Obama who is openly gay, told POLITICO last month that he was “losing patience” with the White House.
“I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it’s doing right now,” said Hildebrand.
Is this kind of criticism towards the president fair though?
“It certainly can’t hurt if people on our side realize the vehemence of the opposition the president faces,” a top gay Democrat close to Obama told POLITICO. “The stuff the right wing is cranking out is horrible, terrible. There are a lot of understandably impatient LGBT Americans…but while all their criticism is well-intended, some of it is politically naïve.”
Sources:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26866.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28146.html#
Good article.
Kevin Jennings is a concern due to his background and thoughts (praising NAMBLA)http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obama-appointee-lauded-NAMBLA-figure-63115112.html
Its not because he is gay. The same goes for Chai Feldblum (http://beyondmarriage.org/full_statement.html). It amazes me how people blame conservatives for these wackjobs with radical ideologies that Obama continues to surround himself with.