Has the gay agenda stalled in Congress?

US Representative Barney Frank

I never understood why the LGBT community is up in arms with President Obama. In his first 18 months in office, he has had to deal with a myriad of issues that have such a major impact on all Americans. From the financial crisis to health care, I don’t believe that President Obama has had the opportunity to take the lead on pro-gay legislation. There just was too many other pieces of legislation demanding his attention. As a gay person, I perfectly understand where President Obama’s priorities must lie. And I am equally happy that now (after he has achieved success on several pieces of major legislation), he is moving forward with important gay legislation. We have seen success with hate crime protections and the introduction of legislation repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. However, other important legislation has stalled – namely 1) federal workers receiving spousal benefits for their same-sex partners, 2) the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, 3) the Uniting American Families Act and 4) the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

But danger looms and if President Obama is not careful, he may never endear himself to the LGBT community. The Democratic party has historically been pro-gay and with a majority in the House and Senate, you would have thought just 6 months ago, that any pro-LGBT legislation would probably pass. But November is right around the corner and if the Republicans are successful in retaking the House or the Senate, we may loose out on any further opportunity for change. To me, that is a worry that all gay people should have.

The Washington Blade (one of the nation’s oldest LGBT newspapers) produced a news piece bringing up this very point and asked the question, has the gay agenda stalled? According to the Blade, …”Despite the limited time remaining this year, some LGBT rights supporters are hopeful that Congress will move forward with additional legislation….” Representative Barney Frank echoed those same thoughts, stating “…..That’s going to be next thing we’ll turn our attention to [a look at the ENDA bill],” Frank said. “We have the speaker’s support and we’re still trying to figure out a way to get that done. If the defense authorization hadn’t come up earlier [with Don't Ask Don't Tell in the bill], we might have been able to do ENDA first [but DADT displaced ENDA in the batting order for Congress].”

So before we are so quick to attack President Obama for his perceived lack of leadership, maybe we need to look at the real culprits – a Republican party that has done everything possible to hinder Democrats efforts and a Democratic party that has failed to unify behind its majority to get legislation that is consider a “staple of the Democratic Party” done.  We can only hope for the future and continue to pressure our “elected” representatives.

Thomas (writing for Click Click Expose Gay Entertainment Media).  Article quotes are from the Chris Johnson, Reporter Washington Blade 7/22/2010.