Alan Cumming claimed that Obama has done diddly squat for gays. Well, I wouldn't call appointing the most gay officials to well-paid Government jobs nothing:
Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far — from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers — surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton.
"From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.
The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.
In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees — about two dozen required Senate confirmation — have stirred much controversy. It's a far cry from the 1993 furor surrounding Clinton's nomination of then-San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for Housing and Urban Development.
I'm sure will appoint more as his term continues.
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2 comments:
Alan Cumming needs to STFU. He's a British subject, not American. What has Betty Windsor done for the British GLBT community lately? Yeah....that's what I thought.
Behrmark, I appreciate the sentiment and agree that over criticizing our main supporters is counter-productive. However, Alan got dual citizenship in 2008 and will be voting in the forthcoming election.
As far as UK LGBT movement goes, the military allows out & open soldiers and requires Equality & Diversity training for the military. In addition, the UK public is WIDELY closer to agreeing with marriage equality than us. 41% for full gay marriage & 37% for Civil Unions only (which are already permitted nationwide), meaning together, 78% on our side in varying degrees.
Again, I appreciate your sentiment, but the English, while not perfect, are still leaps and bounds beyond US LGBT acceptance. Perhaps we SHOULD take heed of their opines.
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