“Don’t Ask, Don’t Give?”

The editors of AMERICAblog, a site that covers “US politics overall with a particular focus on the Obama Administration, the radical right, and civil rights,” has proposed an interesting tactic to encourage President Obama, and the democratic party, to make good on their promises to expand LGBT rights in the the United States: withhold campaign donations to the democratic party at all levels until the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the repeal of both the Defense of Marriage Act and, of course, the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts?

Before you reach your conclusions, a background regarding both the specifics of these policies, and Obama’s presidential campaign responses to them, may help you understand what frustrates the editors of AMERICAblog (and many progressives around the nation, for that matter).

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has been introduced in every nearly congress since 1994, and would prohibit “ discrimination of employees on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability” for most companies with more than 15 employees. It has come close to passing in democratic controlled houses and senates; however, the inclusion of protection of transgender rights is thought to be unpalatable to a significant amount of democratic congresspeople. A bill without transgender rights did pass the house in 2007, but died in the senate. During his campaign, Obama supported the “strongest possible” ENDA; however, he acknowledged the strong opposition to transgender protection.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) decrees that no state needs to treat a same-sex couple as married, even if they are married under the laws of another state, and also offers a federal definition of marriage as a “legal union between one man and one woman.” Though this passed in 1996 during a Republican majority in both house and senate, the vote was 342-67 and 85-14, respectively, meaning that a great deal of democrats were in favor of this bill.  During his campaign, Obama advocated for the full repeal of DOMA; however, in June 2009, the Department of Justice issued a brief defending the constitutionality of the act.

The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy was elaborated in 1993 as a compromise with the then current policy of complete exclusion of homosexual individuals from the military. The phrase means that members of the military should not “ask” about another service-person’s sexual preference, nor should any member divulge their homosexuality to others. President Obama, in his campaign, advocated the repeal of this policy; however, 19 days after his election, he said that plans to repeal the policy would wait until 2010, after consulting with appointees and the joint chiefs of staff, and preparing a bill for the legislature. Law experts at UC Santa Barbara, however, argue that its repeal can be done through executive order, not just legislation.

What is most important to note is that Candidate Obama seems to be different than President Obama. Some may argue that he isn’t devaluing the rights of the LGBT community, but simply waiting for the correct time to work towards attaining those goals. During his campaign, he said that he is”running for president to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters.” And yet despite many opportunities to support equality for all, including offering more assistance to state-campaigns for gay marriage, and being more aggressive on pursuing increased rights through legislation or executive order, the Obama administration seems to be doing the opposite, offering little help to gay-marriage advocates and even issuing briefs that support DOMA, an act so blatantly and unapologetically creating inequality between Americans. Millions were inspired by Barack Obama’s calls for true change in the United States, and we look up to him for his integrity and morality; to progressives, the assault on the rights of LGBT citizens by the government seems like such a direct violation of personal rights and equality, and it was assumed that Obama, and the democratic party, felt this way too. Now, again, we hear the call to wait for the right moment: how can basic freedoms wait? Unfortunately, one way of getting our leaders to ask this question is by withholding money, because even in the allegedly lobby-free Obama administration, money talks.

[AMERICAblog]

Share this: