In today’s Washington Post, incoming GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios writes about why he’s attending the much-maligned White House Stonewall celebration tonight. And, for Barrios, attending comes down to this:
I have to admit I was ambivalent when I received the invitation, with its fancy curlicue script (truly, just like my sister’s wedding announcement) and a return address that read simply “The White House.” The problem is that I haven’t been as excited as I’d like to be about President Obama. I’d been excited by Candidate Obama. His campaign invited people like me and my husband Doug — gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans — into his aspirational vision of America the Possible. But, as President Obama, he has presided over an administration that has stumbled — sometimes symbolically, sometimes substantially — in its commitment to include us on the agenda.
. . . When I told my 17-year-old son Javier about the reception, he could sense that I was torn. From across the dinner table, he looked straight at me: “Papi, you need to go to the White House, and you need to take me. It’s the President.” Not persuaded by that one, kid. “It’s the President, and he needs to see our family, too. To remind him that we’re counting on him.”
John Aravosis of AMERICAblog feels a bit differently.
Barrios was also interviewed over the weekend by CNN. He discussed Obama and the ongoing fight for LGBT rights. Watch that interview.
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