The President IS for marriage equalityAdmittedly, IT TOOK him long enough, but HE HAS advised the House that his Justice Dept. WILL NOT defend DOMA in court BECAUSE it is unconstitutional, BECAUSE Lt.Choi and all the rest of us ARE entitled to equal protection.  Lt. Choi’s issue is with the volunteer, NOT the President.
http://gawker.com/5795406/boeh…
As for first-time-voters, they let us down once already in 2010.  First-time voting is something people need to overcome ASAP.  If they forgot in 2010, they dangwell better remember this time.  Choi is deluded in thinking that anything OTHER than supporting Obama AND EVERY OTHER Democrat they can find, COULD HELP, in ANY way.  Everybody who hasn’t figured this out yet needs to consult or interview 20,000 Nader voters (from 2000) in New Hampshire or triple that many in Florida.

Let us be REALLY CLEAR.Opposing President Obama will NOT get us President Kucinich.
It WILL get us President Pawlenty, or President Bachmann, or President Gingrich – and ANY of these three possibilities is nigh-infinitely worse than President Obama.

If he is, he has a funny way of showing itHe has to come out and SAY he is for marriage equality.  Refusing to defend DOMA, which was on shaky ground from a constitutional standpoint from day one, is not the same thing as supporting marriage equality.  As I remember, he said he hadn’t gotten his mind around marriage equality yet, or something to that effect.  
Any politician who takes the LGBT vote for granted, does so at his or her own peril.  We may not vote for the opposition – we just may not vote at all.

The real issue was the ridiculous position of the volunteerObama’s position is “evolving” for whatever that’s worth. The preposterous posing of the volunteer defending Obama’s official position was why people were laughing.
Prior to this incident, there were no calls to not support Obama’s re-election; that’s Dan’s personal position. There was actually discussion about how the LGBTs are one of the only constituencies so far that has bounced back in terms of financial support for his re-election.

Obama has never said he supports marriage equality.What he’s said about DOMA is that he thinks it is unconstitutional.  This is a very different thing than supporting marriage equality.  Further, he has been very clear that he’s a “states’ rights” person.  That is, he believes each state should be free to decide for itself whether it will discriminate against its LGB citizens.  

How sad that that volunteer is apparently a self-loathing bisexual man

This is just stupidI’m tired of Dan Choi and his misplaced hostility. When Senate Republicans were voting against the DADT repeal, he was taking shots at Harry Reid.  Now, when Republican presidential candidates are promising to bring back DADT, he’s ripping the President.
If Dan Choi were truly serious about obtaining marriage equality, he’d be in New York helping raise awareness and support for the upcoming Senate vote.

Hear, hear!And NOT having an embarrassing hissy fit in Minnesota while we’re trying to raise awareness and build opposition to a brutally unfair constitutional amendment.

Do you follow politics?I mean seriously. Do you follow politics at all? You need to look at the big picture, i.e. the other 97% of voters. Opposing Obama will not get us Pawlenty, Bachmann or Gingrich because these three aren’t the front runners. There are actual other politics going on besides gay politics.
You know what does NOT encourage first time voters? Threatening them.
And it’s just kinda pissing me off that Obama supporters are using these fear tactics and threatening me with what will happen. You know what will happen if a Republican wins? Nothing. Which is the same exact thing that happens if we don’t push Obama. And we’ll survive, either way.
Stalemate =/= winning.

YesI’m sure that Dan would love to go to New York
…provided there is a full camera crew to capture his activism  

“he thinks it is unconstitutional”I believe what he has said is that he thinks one section of the law is unconstitutional, not the law in its entirety.  Presumably he also thinks states should be free to ban gay marriage if they want to.  If that’s not what he thinks, then a) he’s never made that clear and b) he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth still again.

Obama for America?!He certainly isn’t for the constitution that governs America.  His contempt for the document couldn’t be clearer.  His complete disregard for the constitutional provision that gives congress and only congress the power to declare war; his use of the CIA to attempt to discredit Juan Cole (and probably other leftist bloggers as well); his ongoing program to funnel public money to churches; his expanded Bush-era program of spying on American citizens; his authorization of hit squads to assassinate citizens; and on and on–every bit of it is blatantly unconstitutional.  If Obama is for America, what on earth would a president who is against America look like?
Yesterday’s revelation that Obama has been using the CIA to harass liberal bloggers is precisely the kind of abuse of power that got Richard Nixon driven from office; neither man’s contempt for the constitution could be more overt.  All of the bleating that a Republican president would be worse overlooks the obvious fact that for all practical purposes we have a Republican president.

Obama is NOT for marriage equality.He’s for allowing each state to determine whether or not it will allow same-sex couples to marry, an incoherent position that can only lead to utter chaos.  Obama is trying to have his cake and eat it, too.

Against Federal DOMA is not for gay marriageWhat he has effectively said, and correctly so, is that Federal DOMA is unconstitutional. This is because the Feds have no jurisdiction and marriage, gay and otherwise, is a State matter. As it always was in historical tradition prior to Federal DOMA.
So the Feds should fully recognize a Massachusetts same-sex marriage but Kentucky should remain free not to recognize that same marriage.
It was much the same when different States had different legal minimum ages for marriage.

^5!

Know what’s needed?An actual Republican president – say one of the current candidates to put this statement — “for all practical purposes we have a Republican president” — in perspective.
That’s not a threat that’s reality.  Dems had hissy fits (I’m just going to keep using that term) in Nov — Ha, ha, ha!  The Repubs who won are even crazier than anyone imagined.  It’s policy regression all over the place.  Dem pols are slow, but at least they move forward.
Choi’s drama queen moments are annoying and tired.
It would be great if progressives of all stripes focused on building on the things that the President has actually done for the LGBT community, and in general, and work out a political STRATEGY that involves more than calling the President names.

We have all the perspective we could possibly need in recent history.Obama has continued virtually every policy of the Bush administration, and in many cases ratcheted them up.  We had two wars when Bush left office; now we have six.  The tax cuts, pandering to corporations, domestic spying, all of it–Obama has out-Bushed Bush.  The differences between the two are strictly a matter of style, not of substance.  

????QScribe, where do you get six wars?

Democracy for America supports marriage equalityThe sent out an email alert urging New Yorkers to contact their Senators.
LGBT Americans would do well to keep accounts of who is supporting us, and who is timid.
I mean, if you’re going to engage with a voter organizing group, I’d recommend finding one that aligns with your own political philosophies.  

Gosh, sure would be helpful if he’d give us a hand passing marriage equality in New York then, since we’re on the precipice.  

And we are paying for religions to oppose uswith the ramped up and enhanced “faith based initiative” monies that the President expanded.
But, we MUST vote for Obama because we might get Michele Bachmann, or Fred Phelps or whatever scare-daemon tht we ae threatened with at the moment…because God or Dog is on the Mix, and positions are evolving…
As long as we blindly support the Dems, all that they have to do is to promise not to persecute us too much to get our support….

Love The Scare Tactics  Frankly I am just sick of them. Oh no we will get this boogeyman or woman if we don’t vote for this candidate. I don’t vote for a candidate because they are less offensive than the other. I vote for them because I believe in the candidate. Honestly I am on the fence right now on President Obama. If you had asked me a few months ago I’d had said no but I am seeing movement in his administration. I will be listening very intently on where he stands on marriage equality. If he throws a God in the mix or marriage between a man and woman I will vote 3rd party.

“Believe as I order you to believe, or suffer the eternal consequences!”`“If you don’t turn yourself over the Democratic Party, heart and soul, and give them your unquestioning obedience and faith, you will be condemned and forever tortured by the Republicans!”
Remind you of anyone?
Blind fanaticism is ugly, no matter what you worship.

But… but… a Republican President would be far worse!It is obvious that someone having a (D) after your his means he’s been vetted by God Almighty Himself and can do no wrong. If that means adhering to the Republican playbook, well, God works in mysterious ways.
(I shouldn’t need a sarcasm disclaimer, but here it is anyway.)

At Netroots panel, Dan Choi rips Obama volunteer’s flyer over President’s position on marriage (+) AFTER CENTURIES OF NOT ONE SINGLE ADMINISTRATION THAT HAS DONE PRACTICALLY “ANYTHING” FOR THIS COMMUNITY (NAME ONE LGBT-POSITIVE PIECE OF LEGISLATION), FOLLOWING ARE UNEQUALED ADVANCES GAINED DURING TWO SESSIONS OF CONGRESS THAT HAVE BEEN AS VICIOUS AGAINST LGBT PEOPLE AS A DEN OF HUNGRY RATTLE SNAKES. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT PROGRESS AND REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS “AND” THIS PRESIDENT WHO HAVE BUSTED THEIR TAILS TO ACCOMPLISH THEM NEED TO PUT THEIR EGOS BACK ON THE SHELF AND LOOK BEHIND 5 AND 10 YEARS WHEN LGBT PEOPLE WERE BEATEN AND NO ONE GAVE A DAMN.
Pardon my sarcasm but people need to grow up. There is one more major election to hurdle before this President is home free to do whatever he pleases, and I am absolutely confident of what that will be. There are voters in this country who may love lgbt people but have ‘anti-gay marriage’ in their DNA, whether due to their Bibles or Korans or their brainwashing Sunday school teachers or whomever.
Either way, these people may be critically invaluable in the heat of the 2012 battle. And for this administration to go around now during an anti-gay Congress when they aren’t going to change anything anyway, pushing same-gender marriage that won’t happen under this session of Congress anyway could be political suicide next November. Karl Rove would LOVE such actions, considering how brilliantly he took advantage of it in 2004.
And those who discourage voters from supporting this “lesser of two evils” in this administration, knowing the alternatives, are out for nothing but personal attention and certainly not looking for the advancement of this community. They did that in 2010 so that more than 26% of the lgbt voters either voted for GOP/Tea Party candidates or didn’t vote at all.
Considering how little can now be done with this resulting Tea Party-laden House of Representatives, one can only ask “How’s that workin’ for us, folks?”
It’s about time we wake up and realize how destructive such actions can be when that pressure should be spent (1) encouraging people to actually vote for those who support us and (2) unifying our voting base to bombard their anti-gay members of Congress with threats against reelection if their anti-lgbt voting records continue. These people ‘DO’ pay attention to the phone calls of those who are their constituents and discouraging voters from supporting those who have supported us is not in any way using common sense.
…But that’s JUST MY OPINION …..  
LGBT advances under the Obama administration (to-be-continued):

LGBT advances under the Obama administration:LGBT advances under the Obama administration:
1) Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
2) Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Ha…te Crimes Prevention Act
3) Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
4) Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
5) Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act6) Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
7) Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
8) Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity
9) Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member 10) Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
11) Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept LGBT relationships from being counted
12) Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
13) Repeal of DADT
14) Non-discrimination for transgender persons ~ “Late last week, the U.S. Department of Labor took an important step forward for its transgender employees by adding gender identity to the department’s internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. The Labor Department will now explicitly prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity, as well as pregnancy, under existing bans on sex discrimination.”
//
“In addition to the recently updated Labor Department EEO policies, beginning in January 2010, the federal government started to list gender identity in the EEO policy for all federal jobs on http://www.usajobs.gov. By explicitly including gender identity as a protected class under EEO policies, the federal government made an important commitment to protecting transgender federal employees and took a significant step toward ending employment discrimination of LGBT people in the federal workforce.”
“Also of note, the three federal agencies and departments that have the greatest responsibility for protecting federal employees from discrimination on the job – the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division – have all adopted internal EEO/non-discrimination policies that offer similar protections to their transgender employees. Included in this growing list as well are the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Postal Service.”
ACLU Blog of Rights
75 Years Queer
http://www.aclu.org/blog/proje…

AFTER CENTURIES OF NOT ONE SINGLE ADMINISTRATION THAT HAS DONE PRACTICALLY “ANYTHING” FOR THIS COMMUNITY, NAME ONE LGBT-POSITIVE PIECE OF LEGISLATION, Please explain who you intend to suport for the WH after derailing this administration and if no one then why are you doing it? Is it ego or do you all know something I don’t, because if this President loses to that other band of thieves out there, your efforts could have far reaching consequences as opposed to supporting an administration that has supported us.
LGBT advances under the Obama administration:
1) Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
2) Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Ha…te Crimes Prevention Act
3) Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
4) Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
5) Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act6) Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
7) Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
8) Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity
9) Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member 10) Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
11) Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept LGBT relationships from being counted
12) Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
13) Repeal of DADT
14) Non-discrimination for transgender persons ~ “Late last week, the U.S. Department of Labor took an important step forward for its transgender employees by adding gender identity to the department’s internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. The Labor Department will now explicitly prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity, as well as pregnancy, under existing bans on sex discrimination.”
//
“In addition to the recently updated Labor Department EEO policies, beginning in January 2010, the federal government started to list gender identity in the EEO policy for all federal jobs on http://www.usajobs.gov. By explicitly including gender identity as a protected class under EEO policies, the federal government made an important commitment to protecting transgender federal employees and took a significant step toward ending employment discrimination of LGBT people in the federal workforce.”
“Also of note, the three federal agencies and departments that have the greatest responsibility for protecting federal employees from discrimination on the job – the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division – have all adopted internal EEO/non-discrimination policies that offer similar protections to their transgender employees. Included in this growing list as well are the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Postal Service.”
ACLU Blog of Rights
75 Years Queer
http://www.aclu.org/blog/proje…

LGBT advances under the Obama administration:…for those who aren’t bothering to find out before spreading a bunch of anti-Obamasiah propaganda.LGBT advances under the Obama administration:
1) Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
2) Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Ha…te Crimes Prevention Act
3) Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
4) Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
5) Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act6) Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
7) Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
8) Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity
9) Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member 10) Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
11) Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept LGBT relationships from being counted
12) Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
13) Repeal of DADT
14) Non-discrimination for transgender persons ~ “Late last week, the U.S. Department of Labor took an important step forward for its transgender employees by adding gender identity to the department’s internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. The Labor Department will now explicitly prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity, as well as pregnancy, under existing bans on sex discrimination.”
//
“In addition to the recently updated Labor Department EEO policies, beginning in January 2010, the federal government started to list gender identity in the EEO policy for all federal jobs on http://www.usajobs.gov. By explicitly including gender identity as a protected class under EEO policies, the federal government made an important commitment to protecting transgender federal employees and took a significant step toward ending employment discrimination of LGBT people in the federal workforce.”
“Also of note, the three federal agencies and departments that have the greatest responsibility for protecting federal employees from discrimination on the job – the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division – have all adopted internal EEO/non-discrimination policies that offer similar protections to their transgender employees. Included in this growing list as well are the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Postal Service.”
ACLU Blog of Rights
75 Years Queer
http://www.aclu.org/blog/proje…

Compare these lgbt advances to ‘ANYONE’ either past or present ….…and if you show me someone who comes even close, I may listen to their pitch. In the meantime all I hear is a bunch of complainers who really haven’t bothered to research what this administration has actually accomplished on our behalf. Once again, many of you did that in 2010 …”How’s that workin’ for us, folks?” This do-nothing-for-the-lgbt-community-Congress would do anything before supporting us. Is that what we want to create for 2012?

Dan Choi and too many of you in the lgbt community are deluded in thinking that anything OTHER than supporting Obama AND EVERY OTHER Democrat they can find, COULD HELP, in ANY way.Everybody who hasn’t figured this out yet needs to consult or interview 20,000 Nader voters (from 2000) in New Hampshire or triple that many in Florida and see where that got us. George Bush and company….is that what we want, only this time, Romney, Bachmann or Palin? Are we nuts?!

Third party is voting for the opposition, don’t kid yourself. Karl Rove ‘LOVES’ people who think like you.Sorry …But that’s Just MY OPINION …..

Is a moderator going to flag this stuff?–Multi-post commenting in the same thread
–Ad hominem
I’d hate to think the much-heralded revised moderation standards will just be for folks that post opinions the baristas like.
If TLChasteen’s stuff is OK, that’s fine by me.  Just let me know I can respond in a like manner.

3 timesI think we read the LGBT advances under the Obama administration post of yours just fine the first time you posted it.  You don’t have to repeatedly post it to force the issue.  I’m happy you’re an Obama supporter but that doesn’t mean everybody else is.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya.And the State Department cables WikiLeaks released earlier this year make it quite clear that Obama is waging “secret” wars in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.  = 6.

None of that changes the factthat Obama opposes full equality for LGBT citizens.  We are not dogs, worshiping the master who beats us because he’s the only master we know.  More and more people in our community are fed up with the Democrats’ scare tactics every four years while they do nothing at all to ensure our full constitutional equality.  You can spin it any way you want, but Obama doesn’t believe the constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment under the law applies to us.

Voting for Democrats or Republicans is voting for candidates of parties run by bigot.
Our opposition are not just Republicans. Or enemies are bigots. Obama’s one and so are most Republican candidates and lots of Democratic (sic) candidates. The laws that stifle third parties and independent candidates are getting more draconian each year as the twin parties lose more and more in the polls, at the same time.
On Election Day, Tuesday, November 6th. vote left, vote socialist or sit it out. From now until the elections we’ll see scare tactics that boil down to a riff on (‘whoever the Republican candidate is) is Hitler in disguise and only Obama can save us from Hitler. That worked so well in Germany.
And there’ll be more and more attempts to stifle dissent.
In most elections in the US, , the biggest Banana Republic of them all in the opinion of many, from 30 to 50% of eligible voters, seeing no point in voting for Tweedledum and Tweedledee, just don’t bother.
In 2008 voter turnout was 131.3 million or 61.73% of the 212.7 million eligible voters.
Obama got 69.4 million popular votes, or 52.92% of votes cast and 32.62% of eligible voters.
Obama got a little over half the actual vote and less than a third of the eligible vote.
McCain got 59.9 million popular votes, or 45.66%, and 28.16% of the eligible vote
Those too disgusted by the twin parties of war, unemployment and bigotry vote were about a third of the eligible vote.

wishes are freehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

I don’t blame NaderHis party, or his voters for the results of the election in 2000. There are plenty of other sources of blame.
As for Obama, I’m waiting and seeing what happens. He could competently implement the repeal of DADT. He could come out strongly for marriage equality.
As for other Democrats, it depends on the one, and who they’re running against. I’ve voted for at least one Republican in the past because they were so much better on Civil Rights than their Democratic opponent; it may happen again.

I disagreeVoting third party is more like not voting if the third party isn’t viable (why? because it helps neither of the first two parties’ candidates). Depending on the details of how parties are handled in your state, it still may help them if they can’t win, though – they may get more funding next election, or a better ballot spot, etc.
If they are viable (which is an extremely high bar in the Presidential election), then it’s like voting for that party.

I’d take out Somalia and add Palestine. The US pays, in terms of loans and military contracts, for the ethic cleansing and apartheid practiced there by zionist colonists.
Or we could just settle on 7.  

Has any administration ever supported section 2?I’m asking this seriously since section 2 isn’t something that would likely come up in a federal context, as best as I can tell.

Or maybe 8?The WikiLeaks cables also contained indications that we’re up to something in Jordan, too.  There wasn’t enough information to be sure what it is, but it has the aroma of another “secret” war.  There was a fair amount of outrage among the Jordanian people when it came out that their government is cooperating with the US on this, exactly as happened in Yemen.  (Wars that are “secret” from the American people, that is.  I can’t imagine our Nobel Peace Prize-winner’s wars are much of a secret to the populations he’s waging them against.)

You forgot the *1. Federal employees do not share ANY benefits like health care.  All they get is a few expenses and LT disability.
2. The Hate Crimes law NO ONE has been charged under.
3. The HHS memo does defer to state guidelines–it gave us nothing we didn’t already have.
4. HUD policies have still not changed.
5. DADT is still in effect
6. Refused to help when asked in California, Maine, and recently, Puerto Rico.
7. Continues enforcing DOMA all through the federal government.  ICE, IRS, the military–all enforce DOMA.
8.  Named no openly LGBT Cabinet heads or Supreme Court justices or federal judges
9. 400 discharged in 2009 via DADT
Has he done some good?  Sure.  But many want more than just crusts.  Especially when we are paying for the feast.

And Now  At Netroots his spokesman claims he didn’t fill out the surveys that said he supported marriage equality. Where this coming from all of a sudden I don’t know but it sure as hell looks like his signature at the bottom of it. It looks like they are priming to throw marriage equality under the bus.

Never mind the clear, simple factsThat 11% of all registered Democrats voted FOR Bush. Not Nader: Bush.
These people did far more to elect Bush than did all other third party voters combined.

TLChasteen, multiple postings of the same comment = spamMultiple postings of the same comment constitutes spamming, regardless of the content of the comment.  Please cease re-posting the same thing.

AgainYou gave only part of the story.  You never mention all the strings attached to the crumbs nor the flat out slaps and insults this administration has given.