Will President Obama Keep His LGBT Promises?

The last time we had a gay-friendly Democrat in the White House, we ended up with "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Some friend. Bill Clinton’s heart may have been in the right place, but his actions too often reeked of desperation and deal-making, with his LGBT constituency asked to bear the brunt of the compromise.

Now, we’ve been promised change, but oh boy, has it been slow in coming. In Barack Obama’s first year in office, in spite of his stated opposition to both DADT and DOMA, nothing happened. Now, the former issue is beginning to heat up, with both the top guns from the Pentagon declaring that it’s time to end discrimination. Bully for them, and for the president who supports them in this. But that’s not all we were promised.

Barack Obama has made commitments to the LGBT community, most notably at the HRC Gala last October. My husband and I were at that gala, celebrating our first anniversary, and although at least 2,000 of the 3,000 people in the room that night were probably between us and the President, we heard him loud and clear when he told us he was about to sign the Matthew Shepard Act.

And we heard him when he said, “I will repeal DOMA. I will end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

We also heard him when he asked us to partner with him. Our job, as the President laid it out, was to speak out, to change hearts and minds in our own communities. And our job was to hold him accountable for shifting things legislatively while we did so at the grassroots level.

We’ve been doing our part. The debates about gay marriage, gays and lesbians serving in the military, and all sorts of other LGBT rights issues rage all around us. They fill the airwaves and the newspapers and even pop up in the unlikeliest of state congressional chambers, to say nothing of the Federal Courts. And the results of all that discussion and all the work we’ve been doing for so long are unquestionable. Big majorities now support repealing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," and support for gay marriage is also growing. We’ve done our part, and we’re continuing to do it.

Now President Obama needs to do his part, and it’s our job to remind him of that.

Don’t let our nation’s leader forget that millions of hard working American taxpayers are still disenfranchised. Don’t let him put us off or allow our issues to rest because he has other “more important” things demanding his attention. Martin Luther King, as we’re so often reminded, said, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” We’re living under the scourge of inequality every day, every hour. So long as our government refuses to acknowledge and value us, we have no recourse, no protection.

Remind the President of his own words:

“I will repeal DOMA.”

“I will end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

“Hold me accountable.”

Happy to do so, Mr. President. Now, what’s your next step?

Photo credit: The White House