BARACK OBAMA reaffirmed an “unwavering” commitment to end discrimination against gay people, including a ban on openly gay personnel serving in the military, on the eve of a protest march through Washington yesterday to demand that he fulfil election commitments to equal rights.
An emphatic speech by the president to the US’s largest gay advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, on Saturday, which also included a pledge to legislate against race crimes, was greeted with a standing ovation.
But there was scepticism from some activists frustrated at the lack of a timetable on reform of the military, and his failure to take up any major gay rights issue since being elected.
“I appreciate that many of you don’t believe progress has come fast enough ... Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach,” said Mr Obama. “When you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians, whether in the office or on the battlefield. You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognise relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.”
The president’s speech came on the eve of yesterday’s National Equalities march past the White House to Capitol Hill to press demands for reform, particularly of military policy and the scrapping of the Defence of Marriage Act, which was passed to block official recognition of gay marriages.
Mr Obama said the policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, which allows gay people to serve in the armed forces provided they do not tell anyone of their sexual orientation, was unjust. “We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country,” he said. “We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage.”
The current policy was a compromise introduced in 1993 when then president Bill Clinton was unable to get the military to accept openly gay men and women. Mr Obama will face some resistance from Republicans and some members of the military, but there is much wider acceptance of gay men and women openly serving in the US forces than 16 years ago.
But there is likely to be greater resistance to repealing the Defence of Marriage Act. A Democratic party senator, Robert Casey, a co-sponsor of legislation against hate crimes and who supports scrapping discrimination in the military, said he could not support scrapping the Act. “We can move forward on a lot, but I’m not sure there’s support yet for that,” he said.
Gay people continue to come under attack from some on the Republican right. Some members of Congress are demanding that Mr Obama drop his appointee for assistant deputy secretary of education, Kevin Jennings, because he is an activist for gay rights.
They claim he is committed to “the promotion of homosexuality, even in elementary schools”. – (Guardian service)