Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009 03:10 PST
Why Gene Robinson is too little, too late
Nancy Goldstein
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/01/14/gene_robinson/Finally: Nearly four weeks and tons of negative press since Barack Obama announced his choice of the popular -- and notoriously homophobic and anti-Semitic -- evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration, Team Obama has gone into damage control mode. Monday morning they announced that Obama has also invited the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was elected the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop in 2003, to deliver the invocation for Sunday's kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
"You don't have to reach out to people who are diametrically opposed to the equality you've claimed to promote all through your campaign."
All better, right? A story in Tuesday's U.S. News & World Report features fawning quotations from Joe Solmonese, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, who says the Robinson invitation shows that, "ultimately, Barack Obama is a friend to the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community," and Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who called the Robinson invitation "an important step for knowing that this is someone who believes in the inclusivity of all Americans." USA Today faithfully repeats the new administration's talking points about how Obama was always going to invite Robinson and this isn't a response to the Warren flap, blah, blah, blah. Much is made about the fact that a lesbian couple is among the families accompanying the Obamas on a train trip and that there are several openly gay appointees in the works (none of them at the Cabinet level).
