UPDATED
On the eve of the National Equality March this Saturday, President Obama will speak at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Washington D.C.:
"Mr. Obama’s appearance on Saturday at the annual dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights advocacy group, represents a significant show of support for gay rights at a time when many prominent gay and lesbian activists have been questioning the president’s commitment to their issues...While it remains to be seen what Mr. Obama’s appearance at the
dinner will do to his standing in the eyes of gay rights activists, his
speech may mollify some of their concerns. His appearance will mark only the second time a sitting president
has spoken to the Human Rights Campaign. The first time was more in
1997 when Bill Clinton spoke to the group. That was the first time a
sitting president had ever addressed a gay rights organization.
A person with knowledge of Mr. Obama’s plans confirmed his
appearance at the dinner. But this person spoke on the condition of
anonymity because a formal announcement is expected later today."
Said HRC President Joe Solmonese: 
“We are honored to share this night with President Obama, who has
called upon our nation to embrace LGBT people as brothers and sisters. It is fitting that
he will speak to our community on the night that we pay tribute to his
friend and mentor Senator Edward Kennedy, who knew that as president,
Barack Obama would take on the unfinished business of this nation —
equal rights for the LGBT community, and for every person who believes
in liberty and justice for all.”
The following day, thousands will march in D.C. demanding that Obama fulfill his campaign promises.
I certainly hope Obama has some big news or additional plans for the following day because choosing the black tie dinner over the grassroots march certainly won't get him much respect unless he does.
Said former Bill Clinton aide Richard Socarides to the AP: "Eleven months after his election, he has failed to deliver on any
of his commitments to gay Americans, but even worse has been his
refusal to engage around these issues. What he needs to do now is engage and deliver. Spend some of his political capital on ending the gay
military ban, a hugely symbolic issue. And with no intellectually sound
arguments left against it, come out squarely for gay marriage equality."
Joe sounds like alittle school girl who has a crush
Posted by: Wolfie | Oct 5, 2009 2:05:02 PM
@ ALEX you are WRONG.
President Clinton spoke to Empire State Pride in the fall of 1999 TWO YEARS after HRC.
And BTW ESPA is doing JACK SQWAT for the march it's not even on their front page of their site and could not even send out an email to encourage support even though they "endorse" the march.
Posted by: MCnNYC | Oct 5, 2009 2:13:03 PM
Wolfie, your comment about "real" people being at the march and not at the HRC Dinner is reminiscent of Sarah Palin's "Real America" flub. Although you are loathe to admit it, there will be thousands of hard-working LGBTs and allies in the room. I know a few who have sacrificed much to be here this weekend. Your attitude perpetuating divisiveness within the community is not productive.
Posted by: JR in DC | Oct 5, 2009 2:17:36 PM
"Oh and "hateful" is not calling someone out on bullshit and rhetoric"
Maybe your comments haven't been hateful, WOLFIE, but others have. Former Obama supporters such as the posters Zeke and Jimmyboyo have been disappointed but they haven't resorted to hateful "bullshit and rhetoric" and vicious personal attacks (using their "passion" for gay civil rights as justification). Even Andy Towle has been disappointed, but hasn't resorted to hate attacks. Those who do, I think, never wanted him as President from the gitgo. They are ecstatic that other gay people who supported him are disappointed.
Their anti-Obama comments reek with "I told you so". They're having a field day! They remind of of Judith Anderson in "Rebecca"...mean bitches.
The disappointment and protest? Yes. But the hatred? Those bitches can go to Republican hell.
A lot of gay civil rights issues will find their way to the federal courts over the next decade. Who do you want appointing federal judges for the next 7 years? President Obama or President Huckabee?
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Oct 5, 2009 2:22:24 PM
I will not be mollified.
Posted by: Critifur | Oct 5, 2009 2:24:01 PM
Ugh. I need to stop reading all the comments on the Towleroad articles where Obama makes a great decision and works to benefit the LGBT community. It's too infuriating.
I can deal with the comments on the DOJ articles, because while I understand the need to defend current law, a small part of me does share in the resentment for the administration's brief.
This is just insane, though. He's been in office for 9 months. It looks like we'll have ENDA and Hate Crimes in the next few months, DADT is clearly on the agenda for next year, and he has constantly issued statements and proclamations that are LGBT inclusive and supportive (or as you cynically call it "lip service").
Let not forget, he's also been working on the most revolutionary energy and health care policy shifts that we've seen for generations. And let's not ignore that this country is still in two wars.
Just please tell me you'll stop complaining once some of this stuff has made it's way through the system and has actually been signed. Please?
I mean, I don't get it. Is this still just bitterness over the Hilary primary?
Posted by: Aaron Rowland | Oct 5, 2009 2:42:07 PM
I've been hearing for days now that the President was bound to do something symbolic right before the March, to try to tone down the rhetoric against him at the event. I guess they were right.
Will it be any *more* than symbolism? Well he'll certainly try to portray it as such. He'll come to the speech with *something* he can pretend is a substantive improvement, like he did last time. But just like last time (non-health benefits for federal employees?) it's going to be a miniscule, token offering. He has nothing for us but pie in the sky.
Posted by: adamblast | Oct 5, 2009 2:42:57 PM
I can't see how this would be viewed as anything but great news and another step back in the right direction. I don't see a sitting president showing up to a grassroots march of any kind...what kind of image would that be to project? Yes, it would show him to be seriously concerned about gay issues, which would benefit our egos and might change a few minds, but it would not work out well for his broader support, which in turn would work against what the main goal is—results.
I don't blame him for not doing anything with DOMA—that's a lost cause at this point unless the courts come through. I certainly do blame him for not issuing an executive order regarding DADT, because that would have been a pulled-off Band-Aid, whereas doing it legislatively is going to be even more fraught with political risk, it seems to me.
He hasn't been great on gay issues and has made some ridiculous errors and missteps (that DOMA brief was unreal...), but the man is clearly on our side and is our best hope for any kind of progress. To continually snort at every move he makes even when it benefits us...how does that help our cause? How does that encourage him to keep his promises?
All that said, I'm certainly not against people making him squirm as long as it's coming from a place of productivity and not nonsensical, weirdly class-based attacks that seem so common in the comments sections of politically charged gay blogs about champagne and black ties and photo ops. All that stuff might seem like superficial fluff to some people, but it's the grease that makes the political machinery work or not work. It has its place.
Posted by: Matthew Rettenmund | Oct 5, 2009 3:00:46 PM
Another pat on the head that will send the professional gays swooning while nothing real gets done.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Oct 5, 2009 3:20:56 PM
Haha! I'm with Aaron and Derrick, as usual. Those who believe Obama is our enemy, like John Aravosis, have always believed that, and will always believe that, no matter what he does.
So seriously, if anyone should stfu, it's the bitter mos- young and old- the same who said they'd vote for McCain if Hillary lost the primary, that now say Obama has somehow 'duped us' and is obviously completely against us. Obama has never, and can never, do anything to get you on his side. Even when everything we want is done by the end of his first term, you'll give someone else the credit. And it IS because he's black but he's not being your nigger, you self-important, pretentious nimrods.
2009 has been an awful year for the gay community, and it's not beacuse of any president and what he has or hasn't done. Here's hoping this march does more than stoke our passion, here's hoping it gives us some sorely needed perspective.
Posted by: JeffRob | Oct 5, 2009 3:44:47 PM
Another speech? WORDS that's all he's giving us.
YADA, YADA, YADA
Enough with the speeches! The President needs to give us ACTION. He's dealing with a very smart group of Americans, yes us the GLBT community, and we are not easily fooled anymore.
Until DADT & DOMA is ended and ENDA is passed, the GAYTM is closed.
No amount of just talking is going to do the trick. Not even the 2nd "champagne & caviar" parties are enough.
I really hope the March on Washington people protest him.
I was protesting him when he was in Beverly Hills earlier this year. We weren't even acknowledge, except for some lame joke.
Enough!
ACTION not words.
Posted by: FunMe | Oct 5, 2009 4:03:32 PM
ooh, look, more words and meaningless symbolic gestures. ooh, look, almost 450 gay servicemembers discharged since January of this year. ooh, look, there's Obama telling the nation that even though Iowa took a huge step forward he'll only support separate but equal.
oooh, look, more words. whatever. guess at $250/plate he has to say something. and I guess there are enough people out there willing to listen, which is why we'll never get full equality, we keep settling for less.
how's that working for us again? oh, right, it's NOT.
Posted by: DR | Oct 5, 2009 4:09:45 PM
Matthew, JeffRob, you have advanced Stockholm Syndrome...you've fallen in love with the guy who's holding your equality hostage. So stop shooting at the messengers of same.
"Clearly on our side"? What the fuck should that mean if it doesn't mean ACTION. Maybe your lives are so lonely you're content with only being smile fucked, enjoy being played.
In exchange for our money and our votes, he promised us LEADERSHIP not more promises.
The first protest I ever participated in was against Alabama governor George Wallace who was running for President on his infamous "Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever." philosophy. Is it still fantastic that America finally elected a man of color? Absolutely. But don't confuse that fact with the assumption that he was the right one. Don't confuse form with substance.
Hillary, Palin, McCain, Pee Wee Herman...are all beside the point. Barack Obama is the one in office sitting at a desk whose sign USED to read: "The buck stops here." The guy who placed it there had the two things Obama lacks when it comes to keeping the multiple, explicit promises he made to LEAD on gay rights the moment he took office:
BALLS.
Posted by: Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com | Oct 5, 2009 4:17:34 PM
I should be used to it by now, but I still can't believe how little leland...err...michael actually says in his seemingly endless posts.
Let me summarize...
"We disagree, that makes you an idiot
Obama sucks, like totally.
I'm important. Look at me!
Obama = pee wee herman"
Thanks as always for wasting our time.
Posted by: Aaron Rowland | Oct 5, 2009 4:37:33 PM
You know, Michael, you and I (or is it you and me)...yeah, you and me are always bringing up historical references on Andy's Blog. And this is because we're old. But since you brought up George Wallace, let bring up a historical moment that is similar to this one that gay people are dealing with. During the first year of the Kennedy Administration many black folks were disatisfied with his slow pace on civil rights. "we wasted our votes" "shoulda' kept voting Republican" some said.
Didn't LBJ say that he was following through on the agenda that JFK put into motion before he was murdered? JFK took time to move on civil rights because he needed to be sure he had the Congress and the country with him. Many black folks didn't want to hear it. They wanted action NOW at that moment in his administration.
Barack Obama is for gay civil rights but President Barack Obama, the leader of the Democratic Party, is too cautious about how to handle gay civil rights. He doesn't want the fight unless the Congress and the country is clearly on his side.
Is that leadership? Well, it aint awe inspiring, but it's what you call "compromise" in the face of tremendous opposition.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Oct 5, 2009 4:53:27 PM
Derrick, I wouldn't want to make that analogy. JFK gave lip service to the Civil Rights Movement because he was afraid that if he pushed too hard on civil rights, he'd lose the South in the '64 election. For your analogy to hold, that means that if Obama gets offed by some right wing crazy, Biden gets to use and invoke Obama lukewarm "support" for GLBT rights to finally get meaningful GLBT legislation passed through Congress. I doubt many, even Obama's harshest GLBT rights critics like myself, want to see that scenario play out.
As for the Country being on our side, Over 80% of Americans have believed GLBTs are entitled to equal job opportunities...since Bill Clinton took office in 1993. The last Gallup numbers I saw from last year put that number at 89% then. Recent polls show 2/3 to 3/4 of Americans, including a majority of self described conservatives favor ending DADT. A 2/3 majority also supports hate crime legislations. We are at the cusp of a plurality of Americans favoring full marriage equality and a majority support some form of marriage, civil unions, domestic partnership rights for same sex couples. The American People are clearly on our side. But when the issues are discussed in the media, the Fox Noise Network and Crappy News Network focus on the small minority of rabidly vocal opponents and cast the issue as though 90% of Americans hate TEH GAY. Our idiot members of Congress take that as gospel and become amebic blobs on our issues, not wanting to rock the boat while demanding we keep the flow of cash into the campaign coffers as a torrent pace.
Posted by: Craig | Oct 5, 2009 5:27:15 PM
Thanks for less than nothing Mr. President.
It would be nice to see some actual ACTION from you and your weak administration someday for GLBT equality. It's nice to know only the mega-rich get an audience with you. To all those who feel like you are a "friend" to the GLBT community I say:PROVE IT!!! Actions are much more convincing than your useless and pathetic words and rhetoric.
Posted by: SFshawn | Oct 5, 2009 5:53:53 PM
Why doesn't President Obama just take a stand for civil rights, EQUAL rights, and end DOMA and DADT? What's with the mother-f-ing speaches? Cut the crap and stand up for EQUAL rights for all Americans Obama. Beyond sick and tired of this black president with no sense of irony. He can't look in the mirror and say to himself "what the hell am I if I a black man cannot stand up for equal rights for all Americans." Real bored with him.
Posted by: Russ | Oct 5, 2009 6:45:39 PM
I'm not even mad at the President. Who can blame him for thinking these cocktail party things do the job to placate us the way the Barney Frank-types goo and gah and laugh along?
Posted by: JT | Oct 5, 2009 9:34:04 PM
@JT
Exactly.
Obama and the Democrats can't really do anything that "our leaders" don't allow.
"Our leaders" play a part in this too.
Or, to paraphrase Malcolm X:
"The conservatives aren't friends of the gays either, but they at least don't try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the gays always aware of where he stands with them. But the liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the gays but pretend that they are smiling. The liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the gays, and as the gays run from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the "smiling" fox.
The job of the gay civil rights leader is to make the gays forget that the wolf and the fox both belong to the (same) family. Both are canines; and no matter which one of them the gays places his trust in, he never ends up in the White House, but always in the dog house."
You'd be shocked by how little I had to actually change in that portion of that speech.
And I don't care who gets mad at what I just did. That's my history, too.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | Oct 5, 2009 11:45:36 PM
@CHITOWN KEV: I'm leaving in the morning for DC. I am going there because I agree w/ you 100%. I'm starting to be more and more Malcolm and less and less Dr. King. This little event almost takes me into "Free Angela" territory.
Considering ALL the support The National Equality March has rcvd from HRC, I think it's rather much for them to be having the Pres to dinner on someone else's dime.
Yes, that was sarcasm about ALL of their help & support.
Posted by: Derek Washington | Oct 6, 2009 1:34:37 AM
WOW....Those hateful Hillary furburgers are still angry. That their QUEEN MOTHER WHO ALSO DOES NOT SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE didn't win.
I'm not happy everthing Obama has done as far as the Gay Community. But once again Matthew from Towleroad hits on the nose again.
But you girls especially MichaelLeonardoDaskunky@MauryPovichisasandwich.com and draft QUEEN MOTHER back in 2012 and then you'll feel better for her to tell you again "I BELIEVE MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN"
I guess it will make you feel better?
Posted by: Chris | Oct 6, 2009 1:34:59 AM
As I just posted at David Mixner's:
I do have mixed feelings about Andrew most of the time, but with this post, he's said it all. And he has said it well: "So spare us the schmoozing and the sweet-talking and do it. Until then, Mr president, why don't you have a nice steaming cup of shut-the-fuck-up?"
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/obama-will-attend-hrc-dinner.html
Posted by: John02657 | Oct 6, 2009 1:45:57 AM
Appeasement. Puhleez. Action is what is required!
Posted by: Chapeau | Oct 6, 2009 5:05:50 AM
If Obama wanted to say something where it mattered he would be in Maine asking Democrats to vote against the marriage repeal.
Posted by: JoeG | Oct 6, 2009 7:47:26 AM