Thoughts on the Inauguration

[updated]
It has been a seriously long time since I've been proud to be an American. Yesterday, though, in a living room out here in the wilds of Kansas, I found myself standing as the national anthem was sung at the Inauguration of Barack Obama.

There were about 20 of us in the room -- lesbian and straight together. First one person stood, then another, and then we all stood. We reached out our hands for each other and held on as if we were bobbing up from a deep, murky ocean, and our faces were finally breaking free into the sweet air. We sang the Star Spangled Banner loudly, lustfully and somewhat off tune, but we sang it as if we were standing on the Mall in Washington, D.C. We sang it because we were overcome with love for our country. Tears streamed down my face.

I know I will disagree with Obama on policy. I already do on some things. I suspect that I will be screaming angry at him and his administration at some point. But at that moment, I felt that we had reclaimed what was best about our country. We reclaimed the promise of the United States.
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A few more thoughts just in case I wasn't clear...

I seldom agree with Maureen Dowd, but she captured my feelings well. Watching George W. Bush's helicopter fly away, I felt a mass of grief leaving my heart. I had always known that it hurt to watch Bush twist our nation into a place where fear and greed ruled, where one faction was pitted against another for political gain. I just didn't realize until Bush was finally, absolutely gone how much pain I, and we as a nation, had suffered.

Snow: another argument for an earlier inauguration

By Nancy Jane Moore

According to the latest DC alert email -- which I still get, even though I now live 1,500 miles away, because I can't figure out how to unsubscribe -- it's likely to snow at least an inch in Washington today, and the forecast for the Inauguration is mostly cloudy and temperatures of 26-30, with a wind chill of 17-19 degrees.

Of course, the risk of bad weather in January in Washington is pretty damn high. (The same can be said of July, from the other extreme.) However, there is a time of year when the weather in Washington is usually good: Fall, especially November.

If we'd held the inauguration of Barack Obama back in November, shortly after the election, we'd might have had the kind of crisp sunny day when it's a pleasure to be outside. Not to mention that we wouldn't have had to suffer through the last two and a half months of Bush, which, given the immense problems facing the country and the world, was a disaster of tragic proportions.

Anyway, we're less than 24 hours away from a sane, bright, and competent president. I just hope the country can recover from the Bush years and that we never again sink so low.

Watch Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer at the inaugural concert

[updated - see below]

HBO did not broadcast openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer yesterday, but video was shot by Christianity Today. The quality of the picture isn't great, but Robinson's words are clear. The Washington Monthly provides some more reporting on the event. If you want to get depressed, go to the USA Today report and read the comments. Such viciousness isn't even remotely Christian, but reading that kind of anger after listening to Robinson's moving prayer certainly provides perspective on what he has to endure to live with integrity. It also shows you what an amazing man he really is.



Update

Pam's House Blend rounds up reaction to Robinson's prayer being cut out of the HBO telecast. She also links to a report that the Presidential Inauguration Committee -- not HBO -- made the decision to put Robinson in the pre-show, which meant that he wasn't in the telecast.

Today in Gay: The inauguration & ministers, race &, Proposition 8

--> Slate runs down the newly released and expanded list of pastors appearing in Barack Obama's inauguration. Slate also clarifies that the Rev. Joseph Lowery is pro-gay rights, but not pro-gay marriage. Previously, I and a lot of other folks reported that incorrectly. (Apologies!)

--> Bishop Gene Robinson talks to the New York Times about his role in the inauguration, while Rick Warren jabs gay folks and the Episcopal Church in the eye.

--> Atlantic blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates does a great job of debunking the early exit polls and showing, once again, that black voters were NOT the reason Proposition 8 passed. I agree heartily with his call for LGBT Americans to engage the black community in the debate over marriage. The comments to his post are worth reading.

--> Obama's appointments of LGBT folks seem to be building steam. We haven't broken into the sacrosanct inner sanctum of the cabinet, but we are gaining elsewhere. Today's news: John Berry as director of the Office of Personnel Management. For those of you keeping score, we now have five openly queer folk named to the Obama Administration. These also include:

• Fred Hochberg as head of the Export-Import Bank of the United States
• Brian Bond as the deputy director of the White House Office of the Public Liaison
• Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
• Mark Dybul, an appointee under George W. Bush, who will stay on as the global AIDS ambassador

--> A study released by Freedom to Marry reports that state politicians who vote for marriage equality do get re-elected.

--> A marriage equality bill goes to the Legislature in Maine. Meanwhile, Indiana heads in the other direction.

--> A Tennessee hotel fires two gay men for the crime of being (a) gay and (b) talking about it.

--> Finally, under the category of Biggest Bummer of the Day, city commissioners in Kalamazoo, Mich., rescind their vote to protect their LGBT citizens from discrimination.

Jan. 12: Today in Gay

I'm experimenting with what I hope will be a regular roundup of the most important, interesting and/or funky news of the day in LGBT America. Think of this as an extremely idiosyncratic queer front page.

Under the category of We Always Meant to Do This (and do attach a chagrined look to this link), Obama has given a role in the inauguration to openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. (For anyone who has been living under a rock: See Rick Warren.) As Ezra Klein very astutely notes:

Yeah. I'm sure the two (outrage over Warren and appointing Robinson) had nothing to do with each other. They just didn't want to announce Robinson till after they'd endured a month of harsh criticism and a thousand calls from furious gay donors threatening to withhold support from the party and an outpouring of anger from those who'd worked endlessly for Obama's nomination. All part of the plan. Sure guys.

Political Animal weighs in Robinson's role and reports on the growing lists of progressive pastors now involved in the inauguration.

Saturday marked another day of protest over Proposition 8. Karen Ocamb reports on the happenings in Los Angeles. The MSM reports on the Pittsburgh rally. Attendance at these rallies seems down from the Nov. 15 protests and other early demonstrations. My concern is that Stonewall 2.0 may sputter because the new activists are not coming up with a 2nd act. (Act 1 of the play: Take to the Streets. Act 2... um...) My feeling is that without political action, protests can be a dead end. Wockner is more optimistic as he rounds up news reports via Google News. The online organizers, Join the Impact, continue to push forward.

This is a teeny bit stale, but still news... Obama's incoming Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says our new president WILL keep his word to get rid of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell ban on gays in the military. Gibbs' comment comes at 4:21 in this video. This sounds great. I love the short, sweet answer, but words mean little, especially now that the campaign is over. It's time to govern. What I want to see is action. On the other hand I'm reasonable. I'll settle for a timeline and a plan.

Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard says he's "heterosexual with issues" as a new HBO documentary chronicles Haggard's fall. (Note that the documentary is by Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra Pelosi.)

A candidate for Republican National Committee chair claims we can all be "cured" of our gayness. My question: Can he be "cured" of his straightness?

Finally, a mental health break from the satirical site 23/6 video. For those of you, like me, who vividly remember those awful school films from the Fifties, this is truly eerie.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Obama & Warren On & On: Don't exalt ignorance & hatred

Thank you Richard Cohen! He writes in the Washington Post:

He (Obama) went on to say, "We can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans." Sounds nice.

But what we do not "hold in common" is the dehumanization of homosexuals. What we do not hold in common is the belief that gays are perverts who have chosen their sexual orientation on some sort of whim. What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence.

Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue -- the rights of gays to be treated equally -- as some sort of cranky cultural difference. For that we need moral leadership, which, on this occasion, Obama has failed to provide. For some people, that's nothing to celebrate.

E.J. Dionne offers another point of view.

Out-Lesbian Tammy Baldwin named inaugural co-chair

Interesting. Madison, Wisconsin's own Tammy Baldwin has made the list as an honorary co-chair of Barack Obama's inauguration. I'm not certain what an "honorary co-chair" does. I suspect it involves standing around and looking, ah, honorable, but I do appreciate the symbolic bone tossed to LGBT Americans.

Since I was feeling so emotional and wounded about the Rick Warren thing, I do have to say that this does take some of the sting out of the Warren slap in the face. Other folks, however, remain angry. See the comments at Pam's place.

The Inauguration: Don't overlook Joseph Lowery

I'm a tad late on this, but it's still worth noting. Queers are being bookended at Barack Obama's inauguration. There's the anti-marriage equality Rick Warren who's giving the invocation to open the event, and the very pro-marriage,* pro-gay Rev. Joseph Lowery who's giving the benediction to end the event.

*Although Lowery is very supportive of equal rights for lesbian and gay Americans, he does not support marriage equality.

Life, liberty & the pursuit of Rick Warren

I'm rushing to meet a deadline so that I can actually get some time off this Christmas week. (Ah, the glamorous life of a writer!) Meanwhile, I've been mulling the Rick Warren thing and want to write more on this, but, alas, there's no time and nor room left in my brain to do so. On the other hand, there are some interesting new angles on the Warren uproar.

Melissa Etheridge's wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, weighs in on the topic. It seems that Etheridge and Warren ended up on the same stage on Saturday, and had a talk backstage.

Andrew Sullivan, who I alternately want to celebrate and strangle, has some interesting perspectives on the idea of seeking freedom vs. power and the wounded gay community and what it means to really have a different kind of politics.

Joe Klein does the best job of explaining why Warren should be invited to the inauguration.

Personally, I still feel like I was kicked in the gut by the choice of Warren, but I'm willing to listen more. On the other hand, I still have questions. Some folks claim that Warren is a "kinder, gentler" fundamentalist and that he actually does support some legal rights for queers. Inquiring minds want to know more.

For example, we know that Warren's church does not allow "unrepentant" gays to become members. I understand his theological argument -- wrong headed and decidedly unchristian as it is. However, banning gays doesn't give me hope that Warren is even remotely concerned about fairness for LGBT Americans.

I haven't done the research I need to do on this yet, and I'd love to know more.

Where does Warren stand on other issues of basic legal fairness for LGBT people? Does he support any kind of civil right for the people whose relationships he equates with pedophilia and incest?

The Rick Warren kick in the gut

The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld sums up my feelings about the Rick Warren debacle the best.

Does anybody else feel like they are in an abusive relationship?

It seems like every time lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people start feeling a sense of hope, President-elect Obama, America’s single greatest civil rights advancement in a century, manages to deal a blow to the community.

The Politico and others who claim that our screams of pain are about flexing gay political muscle or "looking for a fight," don't have a clue about what is really happening here. This isn't politics. Obama's pick of someone who campaigned against our rights -- a person who equates our deepest love and our families with sexual perversion -- isn't political. It's personal, and it hurts.

Going back to Eleveld's point about the LGBT community's relationship with the president-elect feeling just a tad abusive... Obama and his team should take note. At some point, most folks will leave an abusive relationship.

Human Rights Campaign blasts Obama

Recently, I've criticized the Human Rights Campaign. Today, I applaud them. HRC President Joe Solmonese writes (I've added emphasis):

Dear President-elect Obama -

Let me get right to the point. Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans. Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.

Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness. In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, “there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population ... This is not a political issue -- it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about." Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it's a lie today.

Rev. Warren cannot name a single theological issue that he and vehemently, anti-gay theologian James Dobson disagree on. Rev. Warren is not a moderate pastor who is trying to bring all sides together. Instead, Rev. Warren has often played the role of general in the cultural war waged against LGBT Americans, many of whom also share a strong tradition of religion and faith.

We have been moved by your calls to religious leaders to own up to the homophobia and racism that has stood in the way of combating HIV and AIDS in this country. And that you have publicly called on religious leaders to open their hearts to their LGBT family members, neighbors and friends.

But in this case, we feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination. Only when Rev. Warren and others support basic legislative protections for LGBT Americans can we believe their claim that they are not four-square against our rights and dignity. In that light, we urge you to reconsider this announcement.

Talking Points Memo reports that other liberal groups are also protesting. I can't overstate how it feels to hear this announcement. It's like a kick in the stomach.

Obama picks pro-Prop 8 preacher for inauguration

5:10 pm update - Pam Spaulding weighs in.

Sometimes I think John Aravosis gets too nasty too often. Today, I think he's right. I am stunned and deeply and personally hurt that a preacher who campaigned for Proposition 8 is being asked to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration.