Thursday, November 20, 2008
Homo Project Postcard
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:17 AM
This is a much better idea, frankly, than "Day Without a Gay": The LGBTQ Civil Rights Front has launched "Project Postcard." Endorsed by JoinTheImpact.com, the folks behind "Project Postcard" are urging gays and lesbians and our straight friends and supporters to send postcards to President-elect Barack Obama reminding him of the promises he made to the gay and lesbian community during the campaign.
BUY A POSTCARD - It would be great if it had the name of your city or state on it, but feel free to get creative. Make your own, use one that you have around the house, or grab a free one at your local restaurant. Heck, why not get a bunch of different ones? The more, the better.ADDRESS IT - A handwritten card is always best, but feel free to print out labels if you're going to send multiple cards. Here's the address...
President-elect Barack Obama
Presidential Transition Office
Kluczynski Federal Building
230 S. Dearborn St., 38th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604WRITE A MESSAGE - I recommend something like this...
Dear President-elect Obama,
Please ask Congress to repeal D.O.M.A.! All Americans should have the right to marry. Thank you in advance for advocating for the civil rights of your LGBT citizens.SIGN YOUR NAME - There is nothing more powerful than that.
BUY POSTAGE AND DROP YOUR POSTCARD(S) IN THE MAIL - Wasn't that easy?
In addition to promising to repeal DOMA, Obama promised to scrap "Don't Ask/Don't Tell," support adoption rights for same-sex couples, "use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat samesex couples with full equality," and fight for gay-inclusive hate crimes legislation. But repealing DOMA is the most important single promise Obama made to the gay community—and repealing it is—or should be—a no-brainer politically, as the brilliant Glenn Greenwald argued:
Barack Obama has, on numerous occasions, emphatically expressed his support for repealing DOMA. When he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he wrote a letter to Chicago's Windy City Times, calling DOMA "abhorrent" and its repeal "essential," and vowing: "I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor." But he went on to cite what he called the "the realities of modern politics" in order to proclaim (accurately) that DOMA's repeal at that time—2004—was "unlikely with Mr. Bush in the White House and Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress." After Tuesday, that excuse is no longer availing.Democrats have a particular responsibility to erase the stain of DOMA. It was Bill Clinton who signed DOMA into law. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate (85-14) with massive Democratic support, including from Democratic icons such as Paul Wellstone, Chris Dodd, Pat Leahy, Tom Daschle, Patty Murray, Harry Reid, Barbara Mikulski, and the new Vice President-elect, Joe Biden (interestingly, Democrats ranging from Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein to Virginia's Chuck Robb and Nebraska's Bob Kerrey voted against it).
The politics are not nearly as difficult as many might imagine. While same-sex marriage is still obviously controversial, the extension of equal rights to same-sex couples is not. "Civil unions" — the vehicle for that outcome — has emerged as an interim majority consensus.
Seeing voters elected Barack Obama in a landslide after he made it clear that he intended to repeal DOMA—Joe Biden even cornered Sarah Palin on this issue during the VP debate, and she essentially backed the law's repeal—there's no excuse for Democratic timidity on this issue. Send Barack a postcard and tell him to repeal DOMA.
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Yes, yes, I know - he's President, it's a Democratic-controlled Congress, etc. The only problem is that a number of the Democrats in the House are from GOP-leaning districts and would have trouble with such a vote (remember, all politics is local and we can't assume a national opinion poll will affect these people's votes). There is a better than average chance we could get it through the House, given our majority and the fact that the regional breakdown of the parties benefits this issue (most all of the GOP is from the South, the region likely most in love with DOMA).
We also need to remember that it will certainly take 60 votes to get a repeal through the Senate (there will be more than a few Republicans willing to filibuster such a bill).
I think that we may be able to get this done during this term, but before everyone gets pissed off at Obama if it doesn't happen immediately, they need to consider the real political realities, not just national opinion polls. I think the more immediate issue that likely would succeed would be a repeal of DADT. Most of Congress has appeared increasingly against DADT during recent hearings and the public has definitely moved far on this issue.
in any case, if you do this, please squeeze a return address on the postcard somewhere.
I also really think that overturning the ban on gays in the military is just as important... I know it affects a smaller group of people, but, as with women, being able to serve in the military is part of achieving first-class citizenship. Also, it is a tragedy that gay civilians can't get married in most states, but gay military personnel are often prevented from having any sort of normal relationship at all.
It also removes one of the arguments relative to the Full Faith and Credit clause. Now, the Supreme Court has never said that marriages are covered by Full Faith and Credit, but if they are then every state would be bound to recognize the marriage determinations of other states. In other words, Massachusetts married gays would be recognized as married in other states. Again, that's not guaranteed what it means (and it may not mean that at all), but Full Faith and Credit can be "regulated" by Congress and DOMA performs that role. No DOMA and we can at least test these theories about Full Faith and Credit.
Plus, it's symbolically huge. Huger than huge.
But, I agree, DADT is every bit as important.
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec…
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