An Open Letter
This is going to every democratic organization email address I can find:
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you to let you know that President Obama’s and Congress’ recent failure of leadership on LGBT issues compels me to withdraw my support for the Democratic Party at every level.
I was an early and vocal Obama supporter. During the campaign I not only phone banked for President Obama, but I gave money to him and other Democratic candidates and organizations around the country. While I wasn’t particularly thrilled with his stance on gay marriage, repealing DOMA, DADT, passing ENDA, Hate Crimes, etc would be good enough for me.
However, apparently the “fierce urgency of now” doesn’t apply to LGBT Americans. President Obama’s claim to be a fierce advocate in the White House ring hollow since he won’t actually use the inherent authority of Commander in Chief to issue a stop loss order on LGBT Americans who are currently serving in our military and only want the opportunity to serve honestly. As a veteran and US Naval Academy graduate, I find this lack of integrity extremely disappointing.
But it wasn’t his failure of lead on the DADT issue that caused me to write this letter. It was the DOMA brief. While many have argued that the Justice Department had to respond (and there’s a lot of people who disagree with that), it was the language in the brief that made me lose hope in the President and the Democratic Party. Comparing gay marriage to incest and pedophilia, the brief sounded like it came from the typical Republican hate filled playbook. And then President Obama, and several prominent Democrats, stood by the brief. They supported the most hateful, biased, ugly legal arguments against gay marriage and I felt like I had been sucker punched. While I don’t expect a lot of support for LGBT issues from the Democratic Party, atleast it isn’t actively working to take my rights away, to make me a second class citizen like the Republicans usually do. Or so I thought. The Obama DOMA brief proved me wrong.
While I appreciate President Obama’s recognition of the 40thanniversary of Stonewall, I think the more relevant event that night was the gay bashing by Ft Worth Police that left a young gay American in the hospital with a significant brain injury fighting for his life. The separate body of laws for LGBT Americans (DADT, DOMA, etc) continues to create an environment where LGBT Americans are less than equal, less deserving of support, less deserving of respect and so discrimination, harassment, and violence against LGBT Americans is okay, acceptable, commonplace. President Obama and the Democratic Party's failure to address these issues only perpetuates that environment. And that has to stop.
Until President Obama and the Democratic Party provide significant leadership in repealing DADT & DOMA, in passing ENDA and Hate Crimes legislation, I will not provide any support for the President or the Democratic Party at any level. Please immediately remove me from all mail lists, phone rosters, and email lists.
Respectfully,
Me
*Feel free to copy and send your own version. Here are the email addresses I've found so far:
White House: info@barackobama.com
Democratic National Committee: Democraticparty@democrats.org
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: info@dccc.org
Democratic Senate Campaign Committee: info@dscc.org
Democratic Governors Association: info@dga.net
Democratic Party of Virginia: info@vademocrats.org
Speaker Pelosi: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
HRC: hrc@hrc.org
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you to let you know that President Obama’s and Congress’ recent failure of leadership on LGBT issues compels me to withdraw my support for the Democratic Party at every level.
I was an early and vocal Obama supporter. During the campaign I not only phone banked for President Obama, but I gave money to him and other Democratic candidates and organizations around the country. While I wasn’t particularly thrilled with his stance on gay marriage, repealing DOMA, DADT, passing ENDA, Hate Crimes, etc would be good enough for me.
However, apparently the “fierce urgency of now” doesn’t apply to LGBT Americans. President Obama’s claim to be a fierce advocate in the White House ring hollow since he won’t actually use the inherent authority of Commander in Chief to issue a stop loss order on LGBT Americans who are currently serving in our military and only want the opportunity to serve honestly. As a veteran and US Naval Academy graduate, I find this lack of integrity extremely disappointing.
But it wasn’t his failure of lead on the DADT issue that caused me to write this letter. It was the DOMA brief. While many have argued that the Justice Department had to respond (and there’s a lot of people who disagree with that), it was the language in the brief that made me lose hope in the President and the Democratic Party. Comparing gay marriage to incest and pedophilia, the brief sounded like it came from the typical Republican hate filled playbook. And then President Obama, and several prominent Democrats, stood by the brief. They supported the most hateful, biased, ugly legal arguments against gay marriage and I felt like I had been sucker punched. While I don’t expect a lot of support for LGBT issues from the Democratic Party, atleast it isn’t actively working to take my rights away, to make me a second class citizen like the Republicans usually do. Or so I thought. The Obama DOMA brief proved me wrong.
While I appreciate President Obama’s recognition of the 40thanniversary of Stonewall, I think the more relevant event that night was the gay bashing by Ft Worth Police that left a young gay American in the hospital with a significant brain injury fighting for his life. The separate body of laws for LGBT Americans (DADT, DOMA, etc) continues to create an environment where LGBT Americans are less than equal, less deserving of support, less deserving of respect and so discrimination, harassment, and violence against LGBT Americans is okay, acceptable, commonplace. President Obama and the Democratic Party's failure to address these issues only perpetuates that environment. And that has to stop.
Until President Obama and the Democratic Party provide significant leadership in repealing DADT & DOMA, in passing ENDA and Hate Crimes legislation, I will not provide any support for the President or the Democratic Party at any level. Please immediately remove me from all mail lists, phone rosters, and email lists.
Respectfully,
Me
*Feel free to copy and send your own version. Here are the email addresses I've found so far:
White House: info@barackobama.com
Democratic National Committee: Democraticparty@democrats.org
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: info@dccc.org
Democratic Senate Campaign Committee: info@dscc.org
Democratic Governors Association: info@dga.net
Democratic Party of Virginia: info@vademocrats.org
Speaker Pelosi: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
HRC: hrc@hrc.org