There is a lead over at AMERICAblog Gay with the headline:

Did the White House really just threaten to cut off the entire gay community?

Now here’s the thing.  The story talks about how Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina are PISSED at the LGBT community for actions they have taken on trying to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  You know, actions like bringing it up in the President’s face.  They are pissed that the LGBT community are not just sitting back and being quiet, towing the company line, so according to John Aravosis of AMERICAblog, the LGBT community may be cut off.

This is not a far-flung idea.  After all, it was Emanuel that killed the 70%+ approval rating public option from healthcare legislation, even though we had the votes to pass it.  People are saying Emanuel is a behind-the-scenes king of compromising that waters down legislation to where it becomes meaningless.  You know what?  They are right.

The LGBT community was thrown under the bus under President Clinton.  President Obama promised to be our “fierce advocate”, but we know how that has turned out.  So fine.  Let Emanuel throw a temper tantrum.  We can get what we want out of the Congress, and leave the dillydalliers at the White House in the dust.

Remember during the 2008 election, when Senator Barack Obama said that he would be a “fierce advocate” for the GLBT community?  Fast forward a few months, when President Obama’s administration defended DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, and equated gay marriage to pedophilia and incest.

Remember the 1992 election, when Governor Clinton became one of the first national leaders to champion gay rights?  And then remember the following years when DOMA and DADT came about?  Senator Clinton caught hell for that in 2008, when rocker Melissa Etheridge said that Clinton’s husband threw the gay community “under the bus” given the first chance.

Flash forward to today in Washington, DC.  There was a big buildup to a massive protest, headlined by “gay advocate” comedian Kathy Griffin.  She was headlining at an HRC gala a few nights ago, and was to be part of a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal affair with the HRC (Human Rights Campaign). Griffin made it to lobby the Senate.  Then she indeed headline at a rally today, along with HRC’s leader Joe Solmonese and Lt. Dan Choi.  When Lt. Choi got up to speak, he apparently offered an act of civil disobedience.  He asked Griffin and Solomnese if they would go to the White House with him and Captain Jim Pietrangelo in support, which apparently they said they would.

Well that was it for Griffin and Solomnese.  A photo-op is all they wanted.  They didn’t dare step anywhere near Choi or Pietrangelo, especially when Choi and Pietrangelo handcuffed themselves to the White House fence.  Griffin and Solomnese were nowhere to be seen.

Griffin did tweet after the rally.  This is what she (@kathygriffin) wrote:

It was my honor 2 share th podium w Lt Dan Choi today. I understand he’s been arrested in front of the White House. I dig that dude! Balls!

Yes, he does.  We, as a community – a community of gays, lesbians, democrats, liberals, and progressives – WE need to have balls like Lt. Choi and Captain Pietrangelo.  Why?  Because our “fierce advocates”, from President Obama, to Kathy Griffin, to HRC President Joe Solomnese aren’t.  They proved today that they could care less about what is right, and only about what is doing what is convenient for them.

What if Rosa Parks decided, “Well, I don’t want to rock the boat. I’ll move to the back of the bus”?

What if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have hopes for my children, but I’m not willing to make waves over it.”?

What if Susan B. Anthony decided, “Yes, women should be equal to men, but I shouldn’t speak up.”

These people were different.  They were the leaders that we need today.  We don’t need people like Griffin or Solomnese, who are using the GLBT community as props.  Props for ratings.  Props for fame.  Props for money.  Props for donations.  We need people who stand up and do the right thing, like Lt. Dan Choi and Captain Jim Pietrangelo.  They know what needs to be done, what we need to do to get the progressive movement MOVING!

I previously took the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give” pledge because Democrats decided to stop moving forward on GLBT issues, and when the Obama White House decided to defend DOMA.  Now, the HRC has shown that it wants to do what’s convenient, not what’s right, and abandoning GLBT soldiers, so that organization can go and rot, too.  But you and me.  We are the ones that can use Choi, and Parks, and Anthony, and King as our guides, and do what is right – not what’s convenient.  We are nobody’s props.  We are humans, and we all deserve civil rights.

People are up in arms over the big DOMA flap, and rightly so.  Yes, there are the apologists, but it really appears that we have numbers on our side; the side that says the President and his DOJ is wrong for citing incest and child marriage in trying to fight against gay marriage.

Many people are trying to figure out what to do.  Yes, we have to vote with our pocketbooks; no more money for the DNC until a true apology comes.  Yes, the President made many of us feel somewhat better when he granted some limited rights to some LGBT government employees.  Even I was willing to give him a little bit of a break – until I re-read the brief and get angry again.  Still – what to do?

Dan Savage has come up with the BEST plan ever, and it won’t involve a million people on the Washington Mall this coming October.  No, actually it involves just 730 people per year.  You see, Savage’s idea is that every day, a GLBT couple goes to the White House and asks to talk to the President about DOMA.  Every day they are told they cannot meet with the President.  And every day they refuse to leave and are arrested and forcibly removed from the premises.  It would not take all that long to get someone’s attention with that kind of tactic!  The White House Press Corps would see couples arrested day in and day out – different couples every day, some everyday folks, some celebrities – and start hounding Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on DOMA.  And start hounding the President on DOMA.

That’s how you get things done.

That’s basically the question that I read into a post over at AmericaBlog.com.  Specifically, John Aravosis wrote:

Joe and I got an email the other day from a well-connected gay friend, and he said he was hearing rumors that the Obama administration, in an effort to woo back the gays, was thinking of possibly announcing the following this month:

1. Something on Hate Crimes.
2. Federal benefits for partners of gay federal employees.
3. A gay ambassador.

First of all, I would really like to tell the DOJ to drink a nice big cup of STFU.  I mean, trying to buy our silence and let the calls of incest, child rape, and child marriage stand? Not only is the White House insulting, it seems to be actively working at making sure the reprehensable DOJ brief stands, without any apology or explanation.

For some reason, this reminds me of the very first episode of The West Wing when religious leaders storm the White House and, besides demanding the firing of a staffer, come out with “What do we get? School prayer, pornography, condoms. What’s it going to be?”.  Except in this case, it’s the Obama Administration offering to hand us a trinket, and the GLBT community tell him to get his fat ass out of our White House.

Here’s the original clip; it’s powerful.

The West Wing – Religious Smackdown

First of all, I know that I don’t speak for the entire GLBT community.  And neither do the guys over at Towleroad.com or AmericaBlog.com.  But there is a movement afoot, and I hope that it continues to grow.  The Obama DOJ, and Obama himself, need to be held responsible for the hateful DOMA defense brief that was filed last week.  You know, the one that says that “normal” American’s shouldn’t have to pay for the benefits of GLBT married couples, or the statement that preventing same-sex marriage protects us from child marriage, child rape, and incest?  Yeah, that one.

First off, there is the Democratic Party fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden, among others, at the 10th Annual LGBT Leadership Council Dinner (from the Democratic Party’s LGBT Leadership Council).  This is a dinner that raises a LOT of money off of the GLBT folks to benefit the Democratic party.  Thing is, it appears that the fundraiser itself is falling apart.  It doesn’t sit well when you insult a group of people, then ask them for money.  Blogger Andy Towle and Clinton era gay advocate David Mixner have pulled out, and Mixner has one hell of a response to all the hubub.

Strike two has just been made.  HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, has come out swinging against the hate-filled DOMA brief.  The HRC has not come out against a President this harsh since 1996, when DOMA was put into effect.  And what’s worse (for Obama) is that, according to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog.com, HRC is doing this in a VERY public fashion.  They are calling out Obama and in particular, the citation of incest, etc in the brief.  When HRC is condemining you publicly, watch out.

Now, Senator Harry Reid came out and said that there will be no legislative action to end DADT.  He wants the White House to do it; nobody plans on ending DADT from the Congress.  That would be strike three for Obama.

I would expect this kind of hate-filled argument to come out of the Bush White House.  Indeed, it appears that the author of the DOMA brief is actually a Bush era holdover.  But remember, Obama said (about AIG) that the buck stopped with him.  And I, for one, am holding Obama responsible for this.  Unless he recants and comes to the GLBT community with an apology, many of us will be more than willing to keep our $2,300, not go in to volunteer, and stay home on election day.

So first we had the presidential contest of 2008.  Obama and Clinton were jockeying for support from the GLBT community.  Lots of great things were said, like ending DADT, repealing DOMA.  Where are we, less than six months into the Obama administration?

We, the GLBT community, are under the bus, having been thrown there by President Barack H. Obama.

Yes, we had the beautiful words that came from our candidates to the GLBT community.  Pledges of Employee Non Discrimination Act passage, talk about repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  Words about repealing the hateful Defense of Marriage Act.  But now?  The Obama Administration is putting forth arguments like “incest” and “marrying children” as reasons to SUPPORT the hateful DOMA, and kill a lawsuit from a legally married California couple who challenged DOMA.

Obama, why don’t you go and support former Senator Rick Santorum.  Bring up some “man on dog” stuff.  How about that?

Oh how I wish I could get my $2,300 back.