VivirLatino

In a pretty weak gesture toward the gay community, President Barack Obama — rather than extending a firm handshake of collaboration in policy — has instead decided to throw yet another tiny bone. A fishbone, almost. It appears he’s holding some kind of improvised event in the East Room of the White House to commemorate Pride.

Obama invited hundreds of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to a first-of-its-kind East Room reception marking the 40th anniversary of the start of the gay rights movement.

“To me, today’s event is more than just a reception honoring LGBT Pride Month,” said Brian Bond, the openly gay deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in a message posted on the White House blog. “It is an opportunity for the Administration to provide the world with a snapshot of the real heroes across the country that do the day-to-day work fighting for equality,” Bond added.

But the gathering also comes as many in the gay community are angered over seeing little movement toward doing away with the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, or the Defense Of Marriage Act which says states don’t have to recognize same-sex marriages consummated in other states.

Obama plans to tell the group his administration is currently working on an effort to repeal DOMA.
But there is still much anger among many in the gay and lesbian community over the language Obama’s Justice Department used in a legal brief filed this month in support of the act.

I’m afraid that Obama’s LGBT supporters — some of whom worked his campaign with the sweat of their brow and/or their pocketbooks — aren’t going to just sit down and take the fishbone of saying he’s “working on” repealing DOMA. Fulfilling campaign promises to his LGBT supporters would be, at the very least, a presidential push for the establishment of civil unions at the Federal level, if the term “marriage” is too racy for the president. Why is the *Federal* nuance so important? Because it’s the only way that same sex couples will ever really be able to have (almost) equal rights under the law, including the right to immigration and family reunification.

Pero Obama no se moja.

This month marks Pride, celebrated far and wide, in small and large events in the U.S. and worldwide. And while prominent members of the LGBT community are invited to an event at the White House, in the words of NYT columnist Frank Rich, 40 years later, still second-class Americans.

Via / LA Times

Image via SFGate.com