Glad you're grateful for the bone thrown, man. But excluding health insurance, it seems like "benefits" means "free refill of your coffee for domestic partners!" , absolutely token and contemptible. And meaningless.

The defense of DOMA is staggeringly offensive in its language- it could have been written by Jesse Helms, it'sthat noxious. Incest and child marriage- you, the Obama administration, is actually invoking this to describe ME and my relationship?? Color me staggered.

And a sincere fuck-you to Obama's legal team defending DOMA, a discriminatory act whose very name is imbued with hostility that the idea gay couples deserve recognition -implying such recognition is an assault on marriage itself. Could it get any more degrading than that?

Sorry Chris, Obama's betrayed us above and beyond- his own lawyers have compared gay marriage to vile things like incest and "child marriage', whatever the fuck that is. You go back to your drawing board, or the dunce corner, because you've failed to convince me that this tiny sop , filled with asterisks and restrictions, isn't a joke, a fucking charade.

No, sorry. Anyone who thinks this is a meaningful concession towards civil equality for gay people in the US is a fool. End. Of.

He wouldn't keep screwing over the gay community, civil libertarians, and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party if he didn't really love us.

It's our fault that he has to keep betraying our causes; we don't support him enough. Besides, where else is there to go? Who could we go to? The alternatives are so much worse.

Maybe if we tried to make ourselves a little more attractive to him once in a while, he might pay more attention to us. All that flirting he's doing with the right wing? It's because he doesn't get enough loving at home, from us.

He's a good man, really. We just need to show him more appreciation, be more attentive to his needs. I'm sure he'll come around before much longer. You'll see. It will all be like the old days, back during the campaign. Remember all the sweet things he used to say? How he was going to oppose FISA, telecommunications amnesty, DADT, torture, the abolition of habeas corpus, secret prisons, genocide denial, and all that? He really meant those things, I'm sure. He's just waiting for the right time, that's all.

Things are a little stressed right now. It's hard for him. But he still loves us, deep down. See, he gave the gay community all those rights. Okay, they're only for federal employees. All right, all the most important benefits were left out. But it's the thought that matters, isn't it?

It's all our fault, really. We don't deserve rights. But we'll make things right. We'll put on our nicest outfits, make ourselves look pretty, and he'll love us again.

Just wait. You'll see.

The gay community shouldn't be upset as the administration defends legislation which bars those rights from everybody in the American gay community because Obama signed a memo offering partial rights to the small portion of that demographic employed by the Federal Government?

I thought you'd have something of substance to latch on to given the headline, but it turned out you didn't.

This opinion piece by Mr. Geidner contains exactly the kind of appeasement language that does a great disservice to the LGBT community and, therefore, that Obama and his bigoted ilk love to read. The time for being satisfied with cautious and incremental steps to full equality is over. The time to raise hell and to refuse to settle for less than complete justice is now. Sit back and watch, Mr. Geidner, as those of us with a true desire for immediate and full civil liberties make them a reality by refusing to accept the insulting and half-hearted actions (and inactions) of this seriously flawed president.

Does Obama just have a magnetic hold over some in the media? Seriously if this isn't battered spouse syndrome I don't know what is. He hits us because he loves us, really.

Jesus, how much can one person screw certain of his constituents over and still have those people defend him? It's literally amazing. We all need some of whatever it is he's taking.

If I hear he's just so likeable one more time I'm going to puke. Yeah a lot of problematic people have been. When the guy does the right thing I'll give him credit for it. Still waiting on that one. Until then I intend to call him on cowardice, inaction and whatever other brand of b.s. he's performing today.

P.S. Bill Maher's commentary on Real Time last week was dead-on.

This DOJ, which supposedly "had to defend the law," doesn't feel compelled to defend the 1994 Convention on Torture and the FOIA. That they invoke their legal obligation when they throw the LGBT community under the bus, and ignore it when they want to torture and hide the evidence says it all. I had hoped for a transformational leader. I got a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Trust in the leader. Trust in the leader.

What a load of ass-kissing crap. Obama does not give a damn about the gay community, and the DOMA brief proves it.

You're irrelevant.

Obama's reedy little olive branch was obviously a hastily-arranged attempt to salvage the DNC-LGBT fundraiser next week, rather than the announcement of a well thought-out plan to benefit gay federal workers. He vaguely claimed to have conducted a "long and thorough review" in consultation with Hillary Clinton and OPM Director John Berry, and then "announces" the same limited benefits Clinton herself granted at the State Department three weeks ago. (THAT announcement was made without a big Oval Office photo-op, as if they were trying to sneak it by without the congregation at Saddleback Church catching it on the news). He then went on to "request" that "the heads of all executive departments and agencies conduct reviews to determine where they may do the same." HUH??? He conducted such a "long and thorough review" on a matter which Chris Geidner assures us is very, very important to him - but he doesn't clue in the rest of his cabinet until the signing ceremony? Yeah, right.

But the worst part of this article is Geidner's outrageous attempt to embellish his gay street cred by citing Michelangelo Signorile, quoting him out of context and deliberately obfuscating his central point. Read the full essay and it's clear Signorile stands with those of us who say, "Too little, too late."

http://www.signorile.com/2009/06/we-have-made-our-point.html