Dear President Obama,
Happy Birthday!
Today is your 49th birthday.
Not to upstage, you, but today is also an important day to a great many Americans.
In just a few short hours, Judge Vaughn Walker will make public his decision on Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal trial that will determine the constitutionality of California’s Prop 8. It is a momentous day — regardless of the outcome.
I’m sure Judge Walker did not intentionally pick your birthday to release his decision, Mr. President, and yet, I’m struck by the coincidence.
You see, as president, you have the power to do so much for so many. And if you’re like me, you spend at least part of your birthday every year reminiscing on the past, on the gifts you’ve received, not just from family and friends, but from fate.
You, sir, are a lucky man. The first African-American president (and a rather young one at that!) of the greatest county on earth. Of course, you’ve worked hard to get where you are.
But, so have so many other people. So many people from my community, the LGBTQ community, who have worked hard to get where we are, yet we are not afforded the very things you, by virtue of your birth as a heterosexual, are.
Perhaps because I long for my own, it’s made me sensitive to conversations of others, but recently, as I make my way about the city, I have heard several people talk about their upcoming weddings. And while they talk about their upcoming nuptuals with glee and excitement, they also make two things very clear. One, the simple frustration that I suppose would come with any big, life-changing event, and two, entitlement.
You see, Mr. President, as a heterosexual, you are entitled to get married. You are also entitled to serve in our armed forces, and you are entitled to 1138 federal benefits that I am not.
How is this equality, Mr. President?
How can you, our first black president, a man one year older than I, a man who surely has seen his fair share of discrimination and has had to fight through it to get where you are, how can you, sir, allow other minorities to go through similar and even worse treatment and circumstances?
Mr. President, on this, your forty-ninth birthday, please, as you are counting your blessings, as you are blowing out the candles on your cake, as you kiss your wife and daughters, as you go to sleep, please, sir, think about all the gay men and lesbians who so desperately want the same, basic thing you have: a family. A legally-recognized and protected family.
And, regardless of today’s Prop 8 decision, make a commitment that you’ll do a little better for us.
Thank you, and happy birthday.