I kind of have a crush on Nathaniel Frank. Yeah, he’s real cute. But in addition to that the Senior Research Fellow at the Palm Center is also one of the clearer voices in the fight for LGBT equality.
Frank is probably best known for his work in trying to get DADT repealed, but in a new article on the Huffington Post, he brings the same clear-headedness to the aftermath of the recent elections, the role Obama played (and did not play) in them, and the timidity that is beginning to mark the administration:
And now we’re in a pickle. Most gays are progressive and support the broader agenda of the Obama presidency of economic recovery, health care reform, action on global warming, immigration renewal and more. If we withhold our votes and dollars in the future, we’ll contribute to conservative gains that will derail our own aspirations.
. . . while I don’t begrudge President Obama’s decision to seek buy-in from the center as part of his wish to transcend old divides, I do reject his insistence on including gay rights as part of what he needs to avoid to achieve success. Perhaps more to the point, it is becoming clear that the extreme risk-aversion that prompts Democrats to avoid backing gay rights is not only morally wrong but politically unwise.
. . . What will determine success for the Obama presidency? If it remembers the lessons of its own campaign philosophy: often the high wire is also the high road to victory.
The article is very much worth reading in its entirety. After reading it, I felt like I understood my own frustration with the Obama administration’s lack of movement just a bit better.
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