The War Within: DNC Gets Boycotted Over Gay Rights

John Aravosis and Joe Subday of AMERICAblog, two bloggers who frequently cover gay rights issues, have announced that they and a handful of other gay activists and liberal bloggers are organizing a boycott of the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America (what has become of Obama's campaign apparatus, now led by the DNC) until President Obama puts his political weight behind moving their key issues through Congress--namely, repeals of "don't ask, don't tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act, and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The boycott's "cosponsors," as Aravosis and Subday put it, are Daily Kos, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, Paul Sousa, Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler, Bil Browning, and Jane Hamsher.

The boycott is a financial one: they're calling on supporters to refuse to donate to the DNC and OFA.

They've got a pledge, which they're encouraging people to sign online. It begins:

President Obama promised to be a "fierce advocate" for LGBT Americans.  But while making modest progress on a scant few issues, on the major campaign promises made to our community, the President and the Democratic party have failed to keep their commitments.

Gay rights activists have been frustrated with the administration, to varying degrees across the movement. (Alex Koppelman sums up the White House/gay activist politics nicely at Salon.) And, to be clear, Obama did stand for these issues during the campaign--and he has yet to make them a priority for his administration, as the stimulus, cap and trade, and health care have dominated the White House agenda thus far.

When Barack and Michele Obama hosted an LGBT reception at the White House in June, activists were already grumbling, some openly, that Obama hadn't turned out to be the president they thought they were electing. The Obamas drew a warm response from the crowd, and the president managed to deliver a themed message of "this is your house," not "be patient."

But that's the message some activists have gotten from the administration, and, while they've been frustrated by the administration for some time, the AMERICAblog-led boycott is the first instance of organized opposition to President Obama that's come out of it.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/11/the-war-within-dnc-gets-boycotted-over-gay-rights/29862/