Obama steps backwards on gay rights

May 1, 6:01 PMInternational LGBT Issues ExaminerKelvin Lynch

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       Obama changes his tune on DOMA and DADT

Several bloggers today are talking about changes made to the White House website's civil rights page, that appear to show a backwards shift in President Obama's stance on gay rights.

The changes were first spotted yesterday by eagle-eyed blogger Joe My God, who noticed that eight specific promises for gay rights had been whittled down to just three.  The eight promises that originally appeared were (1) including sexual orientation in hate crimes law, (2) passing ENDA, (3) supporting civil unions and repealing DOMA, (4) opposing a Contitutional amendment banning gay marriage, (5) repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, (6) expanding adoption rights to include gay parents, (7) promoting AIDS prevention, and (8) empowering women to prevent HIV/AIDS.

As of yesterday, the list of promises was down to just three - passing ENDA, supporting civil unions (but no mention of repealing DOMA), and opposing a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Today, this is what it says on the White House civil rights page:

President Obama ... continues to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. He supports full civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples and opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.  He supports changing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security, and also believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation.

The Matthew Shepard Act is mentioned as a news update, now that it has passed with language including sexual orientation.  The section about adoption rights has been restored, and HIV/AIDS is now mentioned on the Office of National AIDS Policy site

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said they contacted the White House and were told that the administration is "changing the White House Web site to turn it into a more governance-focused site to reflect progress, as opposed to a campaign and transition site. They said they have taken out many such points throughout the site (not just on LGBT policy issues) as part of this changeover."

Seems like a reasonable explanation. 

But what happened to the repeal of DOMA?  And why has the President's agenda shifted now from repealing DADT to changing DADT?  These changes are fundamentally different from Obama's campaign promises, and do not reflect progress.  They show back-stepping by the administration on these issues. 

The repeal of DOMA and DADT are perhaps the two most important gay rights issues facing LGBT citizens, and now they appear to be off President Obama's radar, or in the case of DADT, of low priority.  As long as DOMA remains the law, gay marriage will never be recognized at the federal level, even though the movement is growing in the states.  DADT has resulted in the discharge of thousands of honorable soldiers, for no good reason.  It should be erased forever and viewed as a blot on US military policy in history books.

We helped elect this President based on his promises to repeal DOMA and DADT.  How can he turn his back on us now and allow them to stand?  That's not progress.  I don't know about you, but I'm getting the feeling that we've been suckered.

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