Pam,

Your so right about this and it is so dissapointing to have to wait on some invisible timeline while people around us are still being hurt and existing regulations hamper or destroy their lives.

My one and only hope is that by June of next year, there is going to be some serious thought given to holding or even improving the Democratic margins in Congress and the real appealing to the bases of both parties will start to show up again as before the last election.

Everything that is being done now by this administration to create changes in the economy health care, the war, etc. are going to be riding on what the Congress looks like after November of 2010. If the Republicans can mount any kind of comeback at all, they will have to make the effort next year to organize and fight a total democratic takeover of Congress. If they succeed, it could mean the end of this present adminstration or any hope for a second term for Obama. I think this all points to the fact that next year is going to be crucial to keep and mobilize the base so that programs now being designed will be able to become realities. The deals for our issues in the GLBT Community were not cut and agreed to before the last election. But the issues did become just that; issues to be taken a stand on, which is what Obama did. The real deals are going to be made in 2010 and that is what we have to be preparing for now. Our frustration right now is that "no commnet" right now, seems like no one is remembering what was said in 2008 and GLBT people are still suffering unfairly.

Looking at it from Obama's point of view, I would be saying that I'm going to do something, lets talk about it in early to mide 2010, so that if we get a clear majority we can move quickly on things in 2011 and call it a mandate from the voters.

Any gravitas that we have after next November of 2010, will be evident when the right wing starts to use us again, as in the past, as the reason not to vote for Democrats. That is the time to make the deals with this administration.

It may not be right for those suffering now, but I just don't see it happening any other way and any pressure now may be noted and filed in the back of someone's mind, but it's not going to become crucial or pressing to their interests until next year. That does not mean we should not press or help to clarify our issues. But it does mean that any hope to resolve them this year is not based in political reality.

If Obama was to overturn DADT, sign Hate Crimes and ENDA into law tomorrow, I would be looking for a rainbow hallo to appear over his head within an hour after that. It would be a miracle.

I made these comments in my May 1, 2009 column for Mom Guess What? Newspaper, one of 2 gay papers in Sacramento:

While certainly at this point in time, the Democrats are the best vehicle for glbt to progress and find protections we should not forget it is the Democrats in Congress who helped give us Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed in the middle of the night by Democrat Bill Clinton.

And it now the heavily controlled Democratic Congress that is dragging its feet about repealing DADT and DOMA under the guise the economic situation must be dealt with to the exclusion of glbt concerns.

Apparently Congress can’t multitask to deal with more than one problem at a time.

I remember a few years ago listening to our arch protagonist and chair of the Traditional Values Coalition, the Reverend Louis P. Sheldon, give his philosophy on governing that when you are the party in political power you can do whatever you want despite the objections of the minority party because, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles!”

Getting DOMA and DADT repealed should a relatively simple matter, if the Democratic leadership, which includes our San Francisco neighbor and supposed ally, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, had the real desire to do it.

They are the majority! Hold a couple hours of hearing in the morning in the proper committees, vote it out to floor before noon, vote on it on the floor in afternoon and send it to the Prez for his signature the next day.

And that according to Rev. Lou, when you are in power, “that is the way the cookie crumbles!” So Democrats you have the power, you do what you want!

The repeal of these two odious laws just might be a fitting reward to all of those faithful glbt Democrats and their allies who have stuck with the party despite being thrown under the bus more times than we can count.

I support Gay rights but I don't believe in encouraging anyone to fight in the wars in Iraq and Afganistan.