Some Potential LGBT Firsts With the Obama Administration

by Michael Jones · 2008-12-04 10:43:00 UTC
Topics:

ObamaThere are two things that LGBT folks have never had when it comes to Presidential politics.  There's never been an openly gay or lesbian cabinet member in a Presidential administration, and there's never been an openly gay or lesbian contingent marching in an Inauguration Day.  This year, one or both of those might change.

There's a very concerted push among LGBT organizations - even the staunchly pragmatic Human Rights Campaign (HRC) - to push President-Elect Barack Obama to appoint Mary Beth Maxwell as his Labor Secretary. Maxwell is openly gay, the founder of American Rights at Work, and a former community organizer.  She also comes highly regarded from establishment politicos, including former Rep. David Bonior (who managed John Edwards's Presidential campaign this time around).  HRC wore a little egg on their face over this, since they endorsed Rep. Linda Sanchez for the position before retracting that endorsement and throwing their weight behind Maxwell.  We'll see if it's enough to push President-Elect Obama to appoint the nation's first openly gay or lesbian cabinet member.

The other first that could come with the Obama Presidency is an LGBT contingent in the President-Elect's Inauguration Day parade. Shockingly, given how well we LGBT folks throw parades, there has never been an LGBT group as an official participant in an Inauguration Day parade. The closest we got was the sidewalk during President Bill Clinton's years.  Back then, it was an honor just to be able to perform on the sidelines of the parade.  Now?  We want parade equality, of course.

The Web site In the Parade has launched to galvanize supporters to push President-Elect Obama's Inauguration team to select an LGBT contingent for the parade.  In the Parade has an excellent action section of their Web site with three simple steps you can do to lobby the Inauguration team.  But time is of the essence -- there's really only one week to get our message heard to parade organizers.

The theme of Obama's Inauguration Day parade is "A New Birth of Freedom," which is a line taken from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  I can't think of a more literal interpretation of that new birth of freedom than by selecting the first ever LGBT contingent to march with a President.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
The Condescending Comments from San Francisco's Archbishop on Proposition 8
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.