I don’t think it’s a criticism of prior presidents to point out that Barack Obama can now confidently claim to have done more than any of them to advance freedom and equality for the LGBT community. President Clinton appointed the first openly-lesbian judge back in 1994, and now Obama has seen-through the confirmation of the first openly-gay judge. He’s repealed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that Clinton negotiated (at the time, it was progress) and given gays and lesbians the right to serve openly in our military. He’s decided that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and has stopped defending it in court. He’s expressed his support for the Respect for Marriage Act which would repeal DOMA entirely. He signed the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill. He lifted the ban on immigration and travel for people with HIV/AIDS. In addition, he’s vastly improved both how the federal government treats LGBT employees, and how it treats gays in general. The census now counts same-sex couples. The government no longer considers sexual orientation when doling out housing assistance. Hospitals now have to grant visitation rights to same-sex spouses.
His record is one that has to be respected. I know that the job of a good organizer is to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, but there are a lot of people who, perhaps frustrated by the slow pace of progress, made a lot of very unfair personal attacks on the president. They ought to apologize. Obama’s record on gay rights is excellent. It’s better, for example, than JFK’s record on civil rights.
