Speaking at yesterday's White House gathering marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, President Obama said this to LGBT activists about the administration's slow progress on repealing laws like the Defense of Marriage Act or Don't Ask Don't Tell:
So this story, this struggle, continues today -- for even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot -- and will not -- put aside issues of basic equality. (Applause.) We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love.
And I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It's not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago.
The president made an explicit comparison between the civil-rights movement and the LGBT-rights movement. Maybe that was rhetoric, meant to smooth tensions between the White House and the LGBT community, but it doesn't excuse the administration's behavior; it does the opposite: it implicates the president for not acting more swiftly to end bigotry enshrined as law. The president has made some important steps, such as extending federal benefits to same-sex couples, but his administration has also defended DOMA in court and hasn't taken any concrete action on DADT.
In 1955, the Supreme Court ordered school desegregation to commence with "all deliberate speed." Lately, it seems like the Obama administration has been moving in slow motion.
UPDATE: I get pwned by Eric Rauchway.
-- A. Serwer
