I’m not a blogger, but I’m not immune either. In preparation for a speech at our local PrideFest, I read everything I could find on the web for weeks, trying to decide where my audience might be at. In the earlier days, a couple of weeks ago, I found the near rage I was reading appalling. By the time I finished writing my speech 2 days ago, I had gotten caught up in it somewhat myself, and tried to play the middle, recognize the anger and try to mitigate it.

But from the reaction, during and after my speech, I now feel it was a bit of a wrong note the way I recognized this anger as if it were somehow commonplace: I couldn’t really find that much anger in the audience, and in fact, the cheers I got were from counseling patience.

Granted, Knoxville’s LGBTs have always been more moderate – even conservative – than the rest of the country in general, but I have a feeling the rest of the country is far more patient that the blogsphere and many immersed activists, too.

Inviting a few gay folks in for tea and cookies does NOT come close to fulfillment of his pre-election promises, and neither does giving minimal rights to gay couples who work for the Feds. Even Condi Rice did that.

He should immediately through his stop-loss executive power suspend the implementation of “don’t ask-don’t tell.” (This will provide a period of experiment for the military to live with openly gay people among its ranks.) He should put all of his weight behind ENDA. And he should insist that congress begin repeal of DOMA within its current session.

But I’m with the guy on the NY street [at whatever link that is supposed to be], I’d much rather have some sort of effective health care passed. I got purposefully price out of my health-care insurance by the company I was with, and cannot get new insurance because of certain pre-existing conditions. I’ve spent into the mid-6 figures the last serveral years on healthcare which has destroyed a life savings.

DOMA and DADT could have been left until later. I suspect that Obama would rather institute new rules into the military after bring home most of the troops anyway. DOMA could wait until 2010 or later.

As for the blogs not reflecting the average LGBT, what media outlet does reflect the average anyone? CNN? New York Times? Fox? Excuse me, but is there a slight conceptual gap here? And, to be perfectly honest, I do see the role of political blogs as adversarial, at least in part — it’s some thing that’s been missing in this country for a while.

Based on the segment in this post, I don’t see much of value in the survey — which is probably why it got reported.

I think it’s not too surprising. Like Ben said above, bloggers are more aware than the typical man-on-the-street. And like Ken said, few people consider their sexuality the most important aspect of their life, especially when bigger problems are pressing.

I think it’s reasonable to assume some priorities, that some broad challenges we’re facing must take precedence over others.

At the same time, though, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. While there’s some threat of seeming selfish or greedy, and while some people do go too far in harsh criticism, I think we have a right to keep reminding the government that these are real issues that we want, nay, need to see progress on soon.

Yeah, fixing the economy is probably a lot more important than repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would also be a lot easier. They could probably get it done on their lunch break, figuratively speaking.

What nonsense. There’s nothing to choose. Equal rights are a demand of our very existence. The community is not split on what they would CHOOSE to happen. They may be split on their level of patience, however.

I read your blog along with The Daily Dish as my primary sources for gay-rights issues. So, while recognizing the potential selection bias, I have to say that I am very, very unpleased with Obama’s performance on gay issues. I don’t think I can put it better than Sullivan when he says that Obama just wants us to go away. What evidence do we have to the contrary? Symbolic gestures like hand-written notes to DADT discharges and a speech here or there when DNC fundraisers lose contributions from gay orgs. Which is the real policy? The one submitted to the SCOTUS or the one to which lip service is given at fund raisers?

I’d be fine with the achievements being made later in his term. President Obama’s campeign co-opted “hope”. It was an inspiring and uplifting message. Where is our hope? We HOPE to have equal rights one day. We HOPE that our spouses won’t be deported. We HOPE that whatever hospital closest to us honors our rights as spouses. We HOPE that our professional lives and skills would be valued on their own merits, independant of which sex we are attracted to.

Perhaps President Obama doesn’t want to diminish our hopefulness by doing so little as engaging our community before damaging our interests with something as trivial as a SCOTUS brief.

Next time, I’m voting for the candidate that runs on the “Certainty” platform.