What Obama Hath Wrought

As you’ve probably heard by now, President Obama has come out (as it were) to endorse marriage equality, first in a simple response to a question, then in a more formal statement to supporters. For some, this came too soon after the adoption of Amendment 1 in North Carolina to be easily celebrated. For some, it was a simple, joyful release. For some, it was considered a cynical political move.

For still others, it was exactly the opportunity they’d been waiting for.

JT: Hey @crommunist! Wanna make out? (Sorry @everlyevie!) http://bit.ly/IDh0lD

Crommunist: @jteberhard @everlyevie – Don’t tease me, bro.

Me: @Crommunist @jteberhard @everlyevie Best. Fundraiser. Ever.

Crommunist: @szvan @jteberhard @everlyevie – I guess I should also check to see if Michaelyn is cool with it 😛

Michaelyn: @Crommunist @szvan @jteberhard Hey man, love is love. You’re not gonna upset me

Crommunist: @everlyevie @szvan @jteberhard – I’ll try not to ruin him for you. I make out for keeps.

Michaelyn: @Crommunist @szvan @jteberhard I appreciate that. You’re a gentleman.

As you can see, when I say that others were just waiting for their opportunity, I mean me.

Sadly, neither JT nor Crommunist will be at CONvergence and SkepchickCon this July. JT says he has some other place to be, something about work, blah, blah. Crommunist is all “You ‘Murcans and your racist, totalitarian Immigration and TSA. Yeah, right. Plus, stupidly busy, doncha know.”

Whatever. It would have been a perfect opportunity to raise some funds to defeat our local discrimination amendment ballot question, but the guys had to ruin it with their “practical considerations”.

So now we all have work to do. (Or you have work to do for me. Same thing, right?) What and where do we need to raise funds in order to make this happen? Do we just need to start a Freethought Blogs conference and do it there? And does anyone know any good videographers?

Update: Commenter tynk has suggested FtB do something for Minnesota United for All Families anyway. I’m down with this, and I think the rest of the FtB crew at the con will be as well. Feel free to add creative suggestions as to what in the comments.

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What Obama Hath Wrought
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15 thoughts on “What Obama Hath Wrought

  1. 1

    I am neither as famous or eloquent as either JT or Crommunist, but I am a member of the MN LGBT community! I will be at SkepchickCon and working with both the MN Atheists and LGBT groups to help stop the disgusting anti-gay amendment streak the U.S. is on.

    Get something together, let me know! We also have Biodork in the area and PZ out west.

  2. 2

    tynk, FtB will have a strong presence at the con, including a party room. More than just the locals will be there. I’ll talk to the crew about doing something to raise funds for Minnesotans United. I suspect we’ll all be in, though we’ll also need to be paying for our party. Creative ideas are welcome in the comments here.

  3. 3

    I’m gonna try to keep my temper so as not to give an excuse to be blown off. Please, please think about this carefully. While you’re all having fun and games about making out with each other the reality is real gay people, like me, just got treated to a president who said our human rights are properly decided by a state vote. Stop and think about that. Would you be celebrating with such giddy fervor, high-fiving your friends and saying “Hey, let’s inter-racial kiss bro!” if an American president had just said he was fine with interracial marriage as long as the states allowed it?

    No, you wouldn’t. And you’d be immediately appalled at what looked like a bunch of people not directly affected by this issue acting as if it were their personal holiday.

    I know you guys are huge supporters of LGBT rights and I love you for it. But you are soaking in glib privilege right now and it’s fucking offensive.

    My civil rights were just described as up to the popular vote by the president of the United States.

    You can stop partying now. You could take a moment to think how your glib attitude looks to someone like me who has to bear the brunt of this ugly reality. We could really use your voices on this.

  4. 4

    Josh, I have absolutely no interest in blowing you off, even if you were to do nothing but emote wildly at (or even somewhere past) me on this. None whatsoever. My reaction to what Obama said is much more complicated than you’re going to see right here, which is why the post is tagged as “snark”. So is JT’s. So is Crommunist’s.

    My first response yesterday was that it was too painful to deal with the day after watching North Carolina vote to do something incredibly stupid. Everything was just too bloody raw.

    The levity here is a reaction to the hyperbole from the religious that a statement like Obama’s–which is simultaneously heartening as a measure of how much society has changed since I watched my wildly liberal Senator (Wellstone) vote for DOMA and appalling as any sort of practical measure to address what needs to be done to ensure the rights of people I love–is going to make the world end. It’s a slap at stupidity and insensitivity so large that I, for one, can’t process it rationally.

    The rest of it, about fundraising, is about me being terrified that my home state is going to do something just as bad as what so many other states have done and I won’t be able to stop it. It’s about taking this somewhat hysterical laughter and trying to make it work for the people who need action.

    I can’t apologize for trying to drag something useful out of this mess. I can, and do, apologize for hurting you while doing it.

  5. 7

    @Josh

    I am a member of the LGBT community, I have been for a long time including through my service in the military. What Obama has done prior to yesterday is significant. Namely working to remove the federal restrictions on our community. What he has said is politically smart, I know you do not care about that, but it is what is needed.

    Every major civil rights issue has been decided through the courts, not through legislation. And the federal government does not have the ability to dictate blanket laws to the states without their ratification. With so much fervor from the “small government” preachers, to say anything other then what he did would have hurt more then helped.

    I get that your angry, I am too. But there is more to it then just your rights.

  6. 9

    Not just the courts, tynk: it was Congress and the President that gave the U.S. the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed race and sex discrimination in employment.

    On same-sex marriage, the courts have led the way, but not all the progress has been from the judicial side; in Spain and New York same-sex marriage was passed by the respective legislatures, and in Canada the federal legislation followed provincial court rulings.

    Not that our rights should be up for vote, but it’s at best an oversimplification to say that the courts will be ahead of, or more progressive than, legislatures and executives. (Even when we rely on what’s protected in constitutions, those constitutions were made by human beings.)

  7. 10

    @josh
    Very Well, apparently I did not hold my temper enough to not be blatantly blown off. My apologies.

    @vicki
    You are absolutely correct. After I posted that I asked myself where I had gotten the statement from and could not recall. I will have to research that again.

  8. 11

    Tynk. It doesn’t make rational sense to castigate someone for speaking out about a problem just because we all know how the system works. Part of making the system work is people like me who keep the Overton Window in check (or try). Do you understand that this has always happened in civil rights movements? Would you similarly lecture a black person in the 60s who loudly complained about separate but equal?

    Do you understand that progress has never been made without loudmouths too, not just incremental diplomacy? I’m not part of the problem; I’m a necessary part of the system. I really want you to get that.

  9. 12

    Josh, do what you feel is right. But just as I said before, in different words, get pissed and raise hell. By I do not see how it is helpfull to berate people on your side. Next time try explaining why you are upset instead of attacking before it is necessary.

    If you want a fight, pick one with someone who deserves it. Not just someplace you stand on the higher ground and throw rocks.

  10. 14

    I’m thinking the whole Vice-Pres -then- Pres pro-gay-equality thing was planned. Especially Obama’s “It’s a States’ Rights Issue.” statement. I think they expect (and I do also) that Tea-Party Republicans and other-anti-gay-Republican’s at the state level will start foaming at the mouth even more between now and November, maybe trying to rush through state anti-gay laws and, in the process, show voters just how bigoted they are and get Republican losses both at the federal and state levels. And anything they pass gets shot down later (as it will).

  11. 15

    Wow, this joke thread got really serious all of a sudden. So in an attempt to lighten the mood…

    I would totally give all my money to see PZ Myers make out with Ed Brayton. Just sayin’…

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