Obama's address to the HRC Saturday night was a rhetorical success, even inspiring in his championing the cause of gay rights and likening it to the struggle for equal rights for blacks.
But did he promise anything new? No. And that is a big disappointment to the gay community. It was good timing, however, that the House passed the Hate Crimes bill the day before.
Still . . . while Obama could certainly get it all done yesterday, Congress can't. It is too dysfunctional and too complex to be able to do everything at once that Obama would like to get done.
He can set the agenda, he can push and even twist arms -- but he's up to his eyeballs in doing that over health care right now, with climate change waiting in the wings. I do think, however, that he could and should issue an executive order to stop discharging gay and lesbian soldiers, pending the legislative overturning of the DA/DT law.
It's tough, being gay and wanting full equality, to be told to be patient. But Obama will get us there. I am confident DA/DT will be ended within a year. DOMA will follow, although that will take a little more time. My prediction is that overturning more and more state laws forbidding gay marriage is inevitable, but we need some more state by state voluntary changes that will build the momentum for an eventual Supreme Court decision that will do what it did on sodomy laws.
Ralph
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