Melissa Harris-Perry on Sunday explored candidate Barack Obama‘s 2008 campaign promise to include LGBT non-discrimination policies in an Obama White House — promises that this week were broken. Harris-Perry brought out Obama’s 2008 answers to a questionnaire from the Houston GLBT Political Caucus, promising to implement an LGBT non-discrimination policy. This week, the Obama administration stated it would not sign an executive order banning discrimination by employers with federal contracts.
As you can imagine, the LGBT community has been angered and disappointed — but in a sign of the community’s increasing influence and support, many straight allies and organizations have echoed our frustration.
Harris-Perry’s new MSNBC show is proving to be an excellent addition to the liberal cable news network’s lineup, and Sunday’s edition was no exception. At the roundtable were Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality, Kai Wright, editorial director at Colorlines.com, Joy-Anne Reid, MSNBC Contributor and Managing Editor of TheGrio.com, and Allison Kilkenny, reporter for The Nation.
Harris-Perry pointed out that the HUD ended anti-LGBT discrimination in housing just a month ago — without any religious exemptions, to boot — so why won’t Obama make that ruling consistent across all federal agencies?
Wright came out of the box noting that “this administration is not going to be a political leader” when it comes to LGBT rights. He noted later that “the Right will use LGBT issues as a divisive force in every single electoral cycle,” which makes the Obama administration’s lack of leadership “a problem.”
Calling the LGBT community “unfair,” Joy-Ann Reid noted that an executive order eliminating discrimination at federal contractors is not as easy as it sounds, and thinks the LGBT community needs to place the blame and responsibility on Congress, not on the President.
Keisling was impressively optimistic: “They didn’t say ‘No,’ they said, ‘No, not now’,” adding, “We hear ‘no’ all the time in trans activism, and ‘no’ don’t mean nothing.” Keisling added that “President Obama is going to be part of the solution.”
Later, Keisling made an excellent observation:
I think conservatives have done us a real real favor by attacking trans people, buy attacking LGBT people, because — I don’t know how else to say this — we’re part of who you defend if you’re a reasonable person.
Kilkenny noted that “anger’s a good thing” to motivate the base, and made the point — that I’ve been making for years — that Obama is not good at branding.
That’s why the GOP keeps controlling the conversation.
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Note: Melissa Harris Perry continued the conversation on trans issues:
Watch: Melissa Harris-Perry Explores Being Transgender In America
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