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Rex Wockner has a terrific interview with openly gay Steve Hildebrand, the man who was Obama’s deputy national campaign director. (Recall that Hildebrand got a shoutout at last week’s White House Stonewall celebration.)

Hildebrand is the man who, when Obama began to get hammered by the gay population, went into the Oval Office for a one-on-one with the President to let him know the level of LGBT rage brewing.

Hildebrand’s words from the interview:

On Obama’s back-peddling on LGBT issues:

I told him very clearly that many in the gay community across the country are getting very anxious and that folks have felt very hurt by the Justice Department brief — the language that was used in it. He reassured me that he will not disappoint the gay community during his time as president, that the promises he made during the campaign are promises he will fulfill, and he was very forthright about his commitment to equality.

On the DOMA brief:

As I understand it, [Obama] did not read the brief in advance but he subsequently has read the brief and was not happy at all with both the direction as well as the language that was used — and that he expects much better from his administration.

On the rumored HRC DADT deal:

Regarding some kind of deal that was cut, I think that’s pretty crazy.

On what the LGBT population can do now:

I would encourage gays and straights alike to put pressure on President Obama, on his administration, to call for action — immediate action on the laundry list of items that the gay community deserves for true equality in this country.

While Hildebrand’s words don’t soften the obvious smackdowns that we’ve recently received from the Obama administration (after all, just yesterday we learned that Obama was “struggling” to reconcile his faith with LGBT issues), the interview does go a bit toward demonstrating that we are being seen and heard.

The interview really is worth reading in its entirety.

[photo: Wockner]