An Election Day Letdown For Gay Americans
by Marc Acito
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96823257 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96823257)
NPR.org, November 10, 2008 ยท Dear President-elect Obama:
First off, thank you for including gay people in your victory speech. After the rhetoric of the last eight years, that was certainly a change we needed.
That said, the shout-out reminded me of President Clinton's inauguration in 1992, when Maya Angelou referred to gays in a poem, a bittersweet moment that eventually turned bitter when Clinton himself betrayed us by signing the Defense of Marriage Act and the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
So you'll forgive me for being a little skeptical about the future.
For while you were giving hope to the nation that we were finally healing our racial divisions, anti-gay measures passed in Florida, Arizona and Arkansas, which, despite a statewide lack of foster homes, passed a ban on all unmarried couples serving as adoptive or foster parents as a way of stopping the supposed "gay agenda." Y'know, the one that wants to adopt unwanted children?