Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
LGBT
Related: About this forumcrosspost of tnr article about DADT
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022399265I am too lazy to go back to the magazine so decided to crosspost instead.
Last week, 37 senators signed a letter calling on President Obama to sign an executive order banning anti-gay discrimination by federal contractors. Its the kind of step the president has been increasingly considering or deploying in the face of Congressional gridlock (and the absence of reelection concerns). As he weighs how to balance his Congressional leverage and his executive authority to move his agenda forward, Obama's experience with past gay rights battles is instructivejust not in the way that he usually prefers to suggest.
Last month Obama told this magazine that his slow, methodical plan to end dont ask, dont tell (DADT) had worked. The proof, he said, was that not only did we get the law passed, but it's caused almost no controversy. The president defended his decision not to stop the firings by executive order with the argument that he needed time to build Pentagon buy-in. Had he just moved ahead with an executive order, there would have been a huge blowback that might have set back the cause for a long time. Obama first set up this revisionist narrative back in 2010, on the day he proudly signed repeal of the gay ban into law. He told The Advocate that things dont always go according to your plans in Washington, and so when they do, it can be pleasantly surprising.
Yet perhaps no one was more surprised that DADT ended in 2010 than the president himself. As a new academic volume (a special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality edited by former military officers) shows, ending the ban was not the White House plan at all for 2010. Obamas plan, such as it was, was to push repeal off until 2011, when it was unlikely to have passed Congress. Indeed, the real story of what happened in the effort to pass the most important (and only the second ever) piece of pro-gay federal legislation ever is not as flattering to Obama as his own narrative. The real lesson it provides is that it's often incumbent on activists to force political leaders to get things done.
Six weeks into Obamas first term, gay rights advocates were growing skeptical that the White House had a viable plan to end DADT. Responding to the impatience, a White House spokesperson said the president had begun consulting closely with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the uniformed leadership about ending DADT. Yet shortly afterwards, Gates contradicted the statement, saying talks with the administration had really not progressed very far and that the President and I feel like weve got a lot on our plates right now, and lets push that one down the road a little bit. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that Gates has had one brief conversation with the President about Dont Ask, Dont Tell.
While many in the LGBT community wrung their hands wondering when the president would make repeal a real priority, others already knewand appear to have approvedthe timeline. Even before Obama was inaugurated, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with leaders from the major LGBT organizations and, according to National Journals Marc Ambinder, agreed that DADT would not move until after hate crimes legislation and a federal employment non-discrimination bill. Joe Solmonese, then the leader of the most powerful of these, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), said in an August 2009 interview that he saw a road map of six-month windows: the hate crimes bill, then the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, then dont ask, dont tell.
end of quote much more at link
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112457/obamas-false-dont-ask-dont-tell-narrative
This is a important article because of what it suggests about the need for an executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors since ENDA doesn't have a Pope's prayer of passing. It is also important because the narrative here among may Obama supporters is of an ungrateful and borderline treasonous group of gay supporters. This article suggests those gay supporters were right.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
1 replies, 729 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (2)
ReplyReply to this post
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
crosspost of tnr article about DADT (Original Post)
dsc
Feb 2013
OP
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)1. Of course we're right! We were the ones paying attention to what was really happening.
And didn't have our noses so far up the White House's ass that all we could see was presidential butt cheeks. Unlike SOME democrats.