Dear Mr. Obama: We're Still Hurting

At this moment I wish very sincerely that Barack Obama could have felt the way I did on election night. I don't now believe that he has any real understanding of what it meant for LGBT Americans, so many of whom worked tirelessly to put him in office, to watch the passage of Prop 8 in California. To see not just rights denied as in the many other states that have passed similar measures, but rights taken away from those to whom they had been granted, that was just crushing. We are still licking our wounds, even those of us who watched from across the country unable to do much more than send a bit out a medical student's living allowance to help the cause. If anyone reading this wants to get a better sense of that pain, go over to Lesbian Dad and read pretty much any entry from the last three months. And so, to choose Rick Warren to speak at your inauguration in the name of inclusion, just pretty much redoubles the pain we had barely begun to heal from. Why is it so important to include those who campaigned against Obama, but not those who worked for him? It is NOT OK for Rick Warren, a man who has equated Lion's and my upcoming wedding to a grown man marrying a child, to speak at inauguration, I don't care how eloquently the man talks about climate change. Look, I know that Obama doesn't openly support gay marriage and he hasn't been awesome on all of the the LGBT issues, but he opposed Prop 8 so it's not like this man is representative of his position. We are still hurting, Mr. Obama. It was disappointing enough for you to tease us with the possible appointment of a lesbian for labor secretary, but please don't give a national microphone to someone working to invalidate my life. DAMMIT. It's personal.

I guess what matters is that people who think with Warren hold a great deal of power in this country.

For some good analysis, see Bilerico, Pam's House Blend,