Back in 1992, Bill Clinton made the promise that if he was elected, his first action would be an Executive Order saying that gays had the right to serve openly in the military. And back then the President had the Power to do just that. So what did Slick Willy do? He sent a request to congress to do something better. Don’t ask, Don’t tell was the result. And for the next 8 years, it was a Wonderful solution. Then a republican got elected President, who had a republican congress, and all the Democrats howled that it was the Right Time for Gays to be allowed to serve openly. And that continued for the next 6 years, until the Democrats got control of the Congresses again. Then it was that they didn’t do anything, since Bush would just Veto it.

And now that they have everything, they say that they are just too busy!

Instead congress will do nothing and on November 2nd, 2010, you will still go ahead and vote the same democrats back into office. Saying that you have no choice.

The difference between Democrats and Republics is that a Republican will tell you that they are against it openly. While a democrat will tell you that they are for it, but not now, maybe sometime in the Future, they lie through their teeth continually.

So what to do, hold the Congresscritters feet to the Fire! Write letters and get all of your friends to write letters. Not emails, since a email can be dealt with in a couple of seconds, but a real letter, which can take a minute of two of time. Just think that every letter that is written, first has to be sorted at one of the Congressional addresses, then delivered to the office, then opened and then read, while a computer will do all but read the letter. Write and when nothing happens that week, write again. Hold the feet of the Congresscritters and the President who made the promise to the Fire until they do what they promised!

If you vote for the Democrats after they ignore you for this term, then they will know that they can LIE to you all the time, and you will forgive them again and again and again!

Yes, its been this way for 225+ years. And yet everyone seems surprised every time. We know the rules. We know the stakes. We know how the process generally goes.

Yet, every time we get a Dem into office, we give them 6 months and then: bitch, bitch, bitch...

I'm not naive enough to think the 1994 midterms were all about "Don't ask, don't tell" and Hillarycare. But the left's visible annoyance with Clinton didn't help.

> Like Obama's going to hand the GOP a big ol

> piece of red meat before 2010 midterms...

> See how much gets passed then...

And then there's reelection in 2012. And then the midterms in 2014....

It's always two years until SOME election, Jonathan.

But I'd be willing to wait, if he didn't keep tossing little bits of anti-gay red meat to placate the GOP (from selecting Warren to the horrendous language in the DoJ brief). None of this inspires confidence that he'll ever get to the things I'm waiting for, and that he promised us.

I do think, however, that the LGBT community should be more gracious concerning his move on giving federal employees some rights. Not because it's enough, by a long shot; but because it's valuable to enocurage him to keep going in the right direction.

As for waiting until all the "important" problems are solved before we ask for equal rights, it won't work. There are ALWAYS "important" problems facing any president. They don't go away. Ever.

If we wait for all the big problems to be solved, we will be waiting an eternity.

Marriage rights, medical rights, service rights NOW.

Duh.

Oh, and I really think I will advocate that all LGBT folks and organizations throw their money behind any candidate -- Green, Republican, whatever -- who will make concrete promises and convince us that they will keep them.

If we did that, we could turn enough votes to other candidates that Democrats could be in big, big trouble. Right now, Obama doesn't care, because he thinks we don't have anywhere to go. But if we put our money and our votes behind candidates who will support marriage equality, we can swing some elections.

Maybe even the big one.

I fully intend to honor my problem to continue to donate to Democratic candidates and causes. But, gosh, there are just so many other priorities, you know? You guys need to be patient. Trust me, I'll get around to giving you my money. You need to stop your whining and let me do all the more important things with my money before I give you any.

Like paying a lawyer $5000 to draw up all the documents that will approximate the rights that the rest of the country already has.

But I'll give you money, just sit back, wait your turn, and don't be so whiny.

Trust me.

Wait my turn? Is that akin to getting to the back of the bus? F*ck you. I want my civil rights.

Add to the list: his DOJ argues for DOMA because it saves governments money to deny us equality. Is he just searching for ways to insult gay people? He also uses the disgusting "disagree without being disagreeable" rhetoric of homophobic black ministers and imams. Is he not aware of the connotations? And he's appointed, what, two gay people to government posts? Can't he find ANY qualified gay people to serve in positions requiring congressional approval? The only way that any of his record looks good is if you believe that discrimination against us is acceptable because of the number of people who hate us. Other groups who supported him are being richly rewarded; we just get told to wait our turn, which is what we hear over and over and over and over. Our issues don't matter to you? Well your fucking Obama doesn't matter to me. If your party is going to treat me like shit, don't expect me to be on your side.