Urge Obama to announce he will sign the UN condemnation of anti-gay laws at once

[muriel_volestrangler]

See what Bush's regime did about it here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1rNjQnbi3UUwYn7JGfk4pLIO6DgD955IQK80

Obama wants you to share your vision for America with him, here:

http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision

Joining the list of civilised nations, from around the world, in signing the French resolution, will cost him absolutely nothing. This should be a small, but symbolic, part of anyone's vision. He should announce his intent now - before the inauguration, as a shot across Warren's bows, to let him know that he's on the losing side, like Bush, whatever he may smugly think at the moment.

Ask your representatives in Congress to talk to Obama about this too. None of them should hesitate for a minute, if they're reasonable people, from either party.

You can also urge Obama to put the repeal of DOMA and DADT at the top of the agenda, for that matter. But that does involve organising Congress time. All the UN resolution requires is a few minutes' work for the UN ambassador. Nothing else loses any 'priority', for this.

Obama needs a symbolic gesture to offset Warren.

[joeybee12]

1. It's the least he can do, and he expends no political capital in doing so

It's a no-brainer...only whackos would be upset by this.

[Fumesucker]

4. We are awash to the gunnels with whackos.. In case you haven't noticed.. n/t

[joeybee12]

5. Well, we got bigots, and but I do think that even a lot of people opposed to marriage

equality do not equate it with pedophilia, hence the changing views on it and more approval as people get used to the change.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. This is a good idea.

He needs to do something quick to offset the great insult to the GLBT community that the Warren selection represented.

He can hardly rescind his invitation at this point given the firestorm that it would create on the right, but a countering action like signing onto this resolution would go a long way toward showing the Rick Warrens of the world that he's serious about equal rights for all people.

[lapfog_1]

3. "Obama needs a symbolic gesture to offset Warren"

Why not simply rescind the invitation,

and THEN do the other things mentioned (because they are the right thing to do)?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I'm trying to give the man a way out here

He fucked up, but politicians obsess about losing face and admitting their errors. Yeah, he should find a way to say Warren isn't doing the invocation. But I don't expect him to swallow his pride. He can do this, though, as a basic humanitarian thing to do.

[lapfog_1]

7. Real Leaders admit to mistakes and take action to correct them.

They don't become so concerned about "losing face".

And he should eliminate DADT and move to repeal DOMA and a dozen other things BECAUSE they are the right things to do, not as some sort of apology for fucking up.

Or, another way to look at this... if Warren is removed from the inauguration, would it be OK to just not get around to doing the list?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Of course he should do them all

You can tell him to get rid of Warren from the inauguration too, on change.gov.

The UN resolution is the easiest to do of the list, for a politician who's let us down.

[lapfog_1]

11. Already did, twice.

And told them to stop soliciting me for donations.

But doing the right thing in regards to the UN resolution or any other item should NOT be part of some sort of an apology for making a huge mistake. He should do them because it is the right thing to do.

It won't make up for slapping all of us (I'm another constituency that is insulted by Rick Warren) in the face.

[MineralMan]

8. If Warren were any kind of man...

he'd announce that he would not give the invocation. I do not expect him to do that, though. So, Obama should just announce a change of plans for the inauguration and swap in, say, Cecil Williams. That oughta do it.

[lapfog_1]

12. This isn't Rick Warren's fault.

It's not the responsibility of Rick Warren to fix it.

[MineralMan]

14. I didn't say it was Warren's fault...

I said that he had the option to not give the invocation, and if he were a real man, he would do that, in order to slow down the uproar.

I know that I have withdrawn from a situation to end conflict, even though I felt I was in the right. Sometimes, it's the thing to do.

I do not expect it to happen in this case, as I also said in my post.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I think rescinding the invitation,

while it would no doubt feel good to us as progressives, would ultimately cause more problems and obstinacy from the right than Obama needs at this time when he requires so much cross-ideology cooperation to get things done. It was a boneheaded and wrong decision to pick Warren, but I take some satisfaction from the fact that Warren himself is catching a lot of flak from his own supporters for accepting.

I always suspected that Obama would be far more conciliatory and tolerant of opposing viewpoints than I personally would be -- that's why I've not been swept away by his charisma, impressive as it is -- but my guess is he will be a better president than the alternative would have been, and hopefully once he's in office he'll start pulling the country leftward.

[lapfog_1]

13. "requires so much cross-ideology"

really? Are we then, as they keep telling us, a center-right nation?

And which members of the brokensaddlebackmountain church supported Obama for President and voted for him?

Do you think that more evangelicals voted for Obama than LGBTers? More than all of us on the "far left"? How about donated to his campaign?

If he needs them so bad to get things done now, why didn't he need them in the election?

[Blue_In_AK]

15. No, please don't assume that I agree with this decision by Obama.

I most adamantly don't. I'm just trying to get inside his head a little bit. Like I said, he's never been my favorite -- he and Hillary were my very last choices among all the candidates in the primaries -- but since he's our president now I have to try to figure out what his thinking processes are.

We may not be a center-right nation, but Obama is most certainly a centrist and there's no way to get around that. Just look at his cabinet picks, and this selection of Rick Warren adds the punctuation mark.

Do you think there would be no adverse consequences if Warren were disinvited?

I'm just trying to be pragmatic here since pragmatism seems to be Obama's modus operandi.

[lapfog_1]

16. I think they fucked up. (his team). They didn't do the usual

careful evaluation of this pick. Much like many people here, they figured "hey, it's a 2 minute prayer, what's the big deal". And let it slide. After all, they just finished a 2 year long campaign that overcame huge obstacles, probably exhausting everyone involved with the high level decision making. And they have been handed a crap cart of a transition period. Really, George has abdicated his Presidency when it became evident that the Press wasn't hanging on his every word anymore AND it looked like we are headed into the 2nd Great Depression.

So I understand that it's been a hectic time over at Obama HQ.

And, for whatever reason, Obama seems to like this charlatan of a bigot, Rick Warren. Has for years.
I think Obama has a blind spot when it comes to picking religious leaders to "pal around" with. For all of his centrism and non controversial friends, religion is his achilles heel.

And now they have this problem. Yes, rescinding the invite would irritate some on the "near right" who might have been co-opted into supporting some of Obama's agenda. But not rescinding it will create problems with "far left" as well, probably not in votes but in terms of the next election cycle. I know that if I have money again, my wallet won't be as open as it was this election.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. I chose to give my money this election cycle

to my candidate for the House, Diane Benson. She ended up losing in the primary to DLC-backed Ethan Berkowitz, who lost to Don Young in November, but she was the only politician running this year who I believed in enough to contribute to. I don't cut loose with my money for just anyone.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. List of the nations that have signed:

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

See http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/66-countries-back-un-statement-for-lgbt-human-rights-by-peter-tatchell/ and http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/iglhrc/

[OneBlueSky]

19. I suggested this in several threads yesterday . . .

and even started a separate thread about it, but got very little response . . .

I think Obama has a golden opportunity to speak out here, denounce the Bush position, and promise to reverse it as one of his first actions when he takes office . . . might help to quell some of the venom that the Warren invitation has created . . . and it's the right thing to do . . .

so what say you, Mr. President-Elect? . . .

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Sorry to duplicate you

but things get swamped in the other threads here, so I didn't see your thread.

Yeah, it's the right thing to do. Here's hoping he has either already thought of it, or someone will suggest it direct to him.