In which I coin the term "Gay Hiatus," embed a video, bitch at CNN, and get paranoid about zombies. Again.

And hello.

So now that I ostensibly have more free time, I'm going to be gradually making some changes (improvements hopefully) to the blog. One of the things that I'm going to be trying to do is post shorter entries (along with some longer ones) so that I'm able to update more frequently. We'll see how it goes. (Edited to add: It did not go well).

So a shitstorm seems to be brewing over Obama and LGBT rights. If you'll recall, Obama promised a lot to the gays in the run-up to the election, including a repeal of both Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), as well as passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and Hate Crimes legislation. While the Hate Crimes bill is making some progress (as noted in the previous blog entry), everything else seems to have been placed on the back-burner.

Queer bloggers are up in arms, and even the mainstream media is beginning to take notice (which is kind of incredible to me). The Huffington Post had an article up discussing the pending discharge of Dan Choi, a National Guardsman who recently came out, entitled "Obama to Fire His First Gay Arabic Linguist" The New York Times has published several pieces on the topic, including this article on Obama's complete silence on both LGBT issues and the recent advances of same-sex marriage, as well as this opinion piece.

CNN also did a piece on the brouhaha, which leads us to.... my first ever embedded video! (If I was able to figure out how to successfully do such a thing... and I think I did, so thanks Wes!).



So the clip is 10 minutes long, and as I know that many of you actually have productive, fulfilling lives and therefore don't have the time to devote to watching something of this length... I have kindly summarized the pertinent details. Feel free to watch (or listen) and follow along, or just read my comments for a handy-dandy synopsis.

0:20: Segment begins with video report and discussion of same-sex marriage (of course). Reporter says: "It's an issue that can't be ignored... or can it?" CNN is a paragon of journalistic standards... or is it?

0:49: In re: marriage equality... "Nary a word from President Obama... think 10-foot pole." I can't tell you how sick I get of watching news reports about Obama's pole.

1:37: Reporter says that the issue of same-sex marriage (no, she hasn't covered any other topic of LGBT rights yet) is "politically tricky" (I think that's the academic term), because CNN's most recent poll shows that only 46% of self-identified independent voters favor same-sex marriage. If I were a reporter talking about this, I think my angle would be something more like: "Holy shit! 46% of independents are in favor of same-sex marriage? Support is sky-rocketing at a fantastic pace! What the hell is going on?!?" But that's just me.

2:08: Finally mentions other issues. Don't Ask, Don't Tell and HIV funding. And mentions the fact that Obama has appointed some queers in his administration, but no cabinet members. Reporter says this: "Some activists hoped for a cabinet seat," implying that only the radical wing of the LGBT movement thought it might be justified in hoping for the first ever openly LGBT cabinet member. And then she brings up Rick Warren, which I am so done with that I'm just going to skip over it.

2:41: Reporter indicates a "willingness to be patient" in the LGBT community and interviews some random queer dude. Wait a second... if there's a willingness to be patient, doesn't that negate the entirety of the previous two minutes of the report, which said that the gays were pissed? Are the people at CNN really this stupid?

2:43: Random queer dude says "I think it's clear that Barack Obama is the most pro-gay President we've ever had." Well, if we're counting pro-gay as completely ignoring us since being elected, then yes. Totally pro-gay. Awesome.

2:55: Random queer dude thinks the "majority of the gay community" understands that the Obama has "a lot on his plate right now." I always love it when one person feels entitled to speak for a large and unwieldy group. And I can't wait for the time that the President of the United States doesn't have "a lot" on his plate anymore. Should be right around the corner, right?

3:08: Reporter thinks that "on many" gay issues, the President will deliver. Has shown no evidence of such a thing happening in the report, but what the hell? She seems confident, so now, so am I.

3:20: And now, Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Paul Begala (I'm a Democrat!) and Mary Matalin (I'm a Republican!). I'm glad that CNN didn't feel the need to include any LGBT people in the discussion, because they would have absolutely no useful perspective on this topic. But Begala and Matalin make such a good team, I forget all of my concerns.

4:24: Begala: Obama has to choose priorities. And this isn't the right time for civil and equal rights for a minority to be a priority, according to the heterosexual, upper-class white male. Oh, and he says that the gay rights movement seems to be advancing very nicely without Obama. So why are we queers so upset anyway? Why would we want the President, who promised to support us and help us achieve equality, to actually, you know, do that? God, we're such fags.

4:52: Begala thinks Obama will "one day support gay marriage." The implication, of course, is that he will when it's politically popular. God bless democracy.

5:21: Matalin points out civil unions are more popular than same-sex marriage. Good point, Mary! We should always do what the majority thinks is best, because they always know best. See: every civil rights struggle in this country's history.

6:15: Begala, to his credit, comes out against DADT. (See? I'm not completely critical.)

6:38: Begala: "Matter of timing and priorities." Alright, so back to critical. So LGBT service members should just keep getting fired in the meantime? Bite me, Begala. Blitzer brings up the above HuffPo article.

7:18: Matalin tells us she's a Catholic, pro-gay person. Thanks?

7:38: Blitzer says that DADT is stupid because we're spending money to train these people. Yeah, that's why it's stupid.

7:58: After some more Begala droning about waiting, Blitzer rightfully points out that Truman desegregated the army with an executive order. The implication, of course, is why isn't Obama doing the same? Go Blitzer! (Never thought I'd write those words together.)

8:55: Matalin also advises Obama to take "more time" in repealing DADT. You know, I like Obama. I voted for him (twice). But the argument that equal rights can wait, while there's "more pressing matters" is one that I just can't buy into. There's always going to be something. Obama has a chance to make history (even more history than he's already made). He has a chance to stand up and make LGBT citizens equal, under the law. And since being elected, there's no indication that he will. And Matalin, I'm glad you think Obama should wait. I'm sure you would feel the same way, had this been about women getting discharged from the military or getting fired from their cushy broadcasting jobs for having vaginas.

While I'm glad that CNN decided to broach the topic, the whole segment seemed rather pointless to me. Both Begala and Matalin, basically, agreed on everything. They both think that the gays should be patient and sit quietly in the corner, waiting for Obama to finally have enough time to get around to ending discrimination against a minority. Why did CNN not include an LGBT person in this discussion? (You know, someone with a vested interest in the conversation? Some, any, queer? Where was Anderson Cooper?) Did they use up their quota of gays during the video segment? Hell, I would have even been ok with including one of the right-wing nutjobs, just to make the conversation something other than mind-numbingly boring.

I just wonder how much effect any of this will have. The mainstream media has apparently decided that this is a story they're going to cover... which means the White House is going to have to keep responding to it. Pam's House Blend has a great piece up about the press pushing Robert Gibbs on Obama's "Gay Hiatus" (as I think I've decided to call it) and Gibbs' not-so-artful attempts to dodge the questions. I guess we'll see if the media actually pushes Obama into saying or doing anything.

I know that Obama is a busy man. But whenever his administration says something like "We're getting to it" or "He has a lot on his plate," I can't help be reminded of that situation last year, when the economy imploded and John McCain flipped his shit and flew to Washington and tried to cancel the debate. Obama responded by saying this: "[I]t is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

So trying to give the man the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that Obama is focusing on more than one thing at a time... what does it say about the man that securing equal rights for his citizens doesn't seem to rank in his top 20 or 30 priorities?

I know that legislation takes time. I know Obama doesn't want to burn any bridges. I know the economy's in the shitter and there's war and disease (and no one's more concerned about swine flu than me) and possibly much worse on the horizon (see: end of this post). I'm not expecting to wake up tomorrow and have all these issues be solved. I just want the man who told me he would stick up for me and others like me, who called himself a "fierce advocate" for our cause... I just want him to say something. Anything. Acknowledge us. Because otherwise... how is this administration's silence on LGBT issues any different than the last administration?

***

Now, I don't want to frighten anyone... but there's a very good chance that the inevitable zombie apocalypse might be right around the corner. Don't believe me?

Check this out.

It's starting.

Cheers.