At this point I'm not sure how much good this will do -- I wonder if Obama is capable, unlike Bush, of admitting when he's made a mistake. This is setting such an awful tone for the inauguration and the start of what was shaping up to be an exciting new term. I worry what other surprises are in store.
Check out Rachel Maddow's take on the Warren situation:
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I am so completely disgusted and disappointed by Obama's selection of Warren, that I don't even know where to begin. Maddow does a much better job than I could of dissecting Warren's history and many offensive statements. I, too, hope that Obama is willing to admit he's made a huge mistake. We've spent 8 years living under a president who refused to acknowledge he'd ever made made a mistake. Obama's recent justification of the choice just increases my outrage. I cannot even express how deeply angry I am about this issue. I cannot believe what kind of hurtful message Obama is sending to LBGT citizens across this country on his inauguration day. A crying shame. Though I'm obviously glad that we won't be inaugurating McCain in January, this whole event makes me feel tremendously sad about an election that had me feeling pretty elated just a few weeks ago.
Sadly, this is not the first time that Obama has shown his utter disregard for the LGBT community. Throughout the entire primary season (which I am not going to rehash), time and time again he associated himself with people whose homophobia and extreme views left an unpleasant stench of hate clinging to Obama. Anyone recall Donnie McClurkin?
"Mr. McClurkin, a black preacher who sang at the Republican National Convention in 2004, has gained notoriety for his view that homosexuality is a choice and can be “cured” through prayer, a view ridiculed by gay people.
Critics on the Internet say Mr. Obama is trying to appeal to conservative blacks at the expense of gay people." (from The Caucus, NYT)
There was the incident with the gay newspaper in PA that Obama refused to grant an interview, a paper that ran an empty space where said interview should have been, right next to the one that Hillary Clinton happily gave them.
I could go on, but I won't. Honestly, I am so disgusted that I find it difficult to be articulate on this one. I do have to say though, that I am NOT surprised by this. Anyone who was unaware of Obama's less than stellar relationship with the LGBT community is clearly deluded or disturbingly uninformed.
Just my two cents.
@fewthistle: I, too, was harshly critical of Obama's reluctance to openly support the LBGT community during the primaries. I also preferred Clinton, for many reasons that included her greater support for LBGT rights, and hoped that she'd prevail during the primaries However, Obama's selection of Warren for the inauguration takes things to a whole new level. This unfortunately confirms the reasons for much of my skepticism about Obama. His track record on LGTB rights has been spotty at best and this sends a down-right hateful message to our community, one I will not forget come re-election time in 2012.
I'm incredibly disappointed, too, but I'm not at all surprised. Obama's a politician. He does what he feels he needs to do to be politic. He made very clear during the primary and the election that while he supports LGBTQ rights tangentially, he doesn't consider it a priority. So this is upsetting, but it's not surprising. Obviously, I completely disagree with his choice in this case, and I think it's vital that the LGBTQ community continue to express our anger and criticize the administration in all its missteps.
Katha Pollitt made a great point in her article in the LA Times. "Only Democrats," she write, "it seems, reward their most loyal supporters -- feminists, gays, liberals, opponents of the war, members of the reality-based community -- by elbowing them aside to embrace their opponents instead."
There's also about a good post about the importance of righteous anger over at The Daily Kos.
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