What FDR's Words Can Teach LGBT Rights Activists

by Eric Grignol · 2009-10-05 14:01:00 UTC
Topics:

FDR

Recently I attended a screening of Michael Moore’s new movie Capitalism: A Love Story, with Moore taking some questions from the audience after the movie. Asked about Obama, Moore said, he inherited a horrible mess, and Obama deserves a long grace period to sort it out. But, Moore added, he hoped that the President realized that the biggest damage he could do is not deliver on his promise of change. It would take a nation of young activists and idealists and turn them into hardened cynics.

Which is why this piece in the L.A. Times by Johanna Neuman and Kate Linthicum caught my eye, noting how some gay activists are criticizing Obama for being “all talk.”

Neuman and Linthicum write that Obama seems to be paying the community lip service, fueling “an ongoing debate among gay-rights activists about whether the president is living up to his promise that he would be a ‘fierce advocate’ for LGBT equality.” He has not moved to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and his Administration has at times defended DOMA. The article points to activists’ claims that the President's support for gay rights “has not been reflected in policy decisions, but has been purely rhetorical.”

Interestingly, at the movie screening for Capitalism, another questioner asked Moore about footage in the film featuring FDR addressing the nation.  Interestingly enough, what was FDR’s reply to activists who wanted to see Social Security enacted? Peter Dreier in this article from Common Dreams documents it: “He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, ‘You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.’"

And therein lies the lesson from FDR. We've convinced Obama about most of our issues -- hate crimes, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," repealing DOMA. Now we just have to make Obama do it.

Eric Grignol
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