MadProfesah Quoted Threatening Obama Administration Over DADT

As 2009 comes to a close there will be lots of ink spilled summarizing the first decade of the 21st century in a number of areas.

A front-page piece by Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle titled "Charting a decade of progress in gay rights" quotes yours truly discussing the "Don't Ask Dont Tell" policy and threatening the Obama administration if the policy is not reversed by the end of 2010.

If Obama does not reverse the military policy "there will be hell to pay," said Ron Buckmire, a professor at Occidental College who leads the governing board of the Jordan/Rustin Coalition, an African American LGBT group in Los Angeles.

Buckmire said it is important to note that Obama signed a law in October that makes it a federal crime to assault someone because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

"That was huge," San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said recently while attending a fundraiser for Equality California.

Bizarrely, I also said that the biggest event in LGBT history for which 2009 will be remembered is President Obama's signing of the federal hate-crimes act which includes gender identity and sexual orientation. But I'm glad Kamala Harris had the exact same thought. Great minds think alike, indeed!

The point I was making about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was that there would be hell to pay if the Obama administration (and the Democrats) do not follow through with the previously announced plan to end the DADT policy in the process of the reauthorizing the 2010-11 Department of Defense budget.

I want to clarify that I had no intention of threatening the administration over DADT but was just reflecting the pent-up frustration that many LGBT activists feel over the lack of movement on a policy which is supported by vast super-majorities of the American public. I said that I completely understood why a Democratic president wouldn't touch the issue with a ten-foot pole in his first year and felt confident that DADT would be repealed in the legislative manner outlined by Barney Frank.

I also said that I was confident that DPBO and ENDA would be law by February or March of next year. I also said it was significant that ENDA will be trans-inclusive, following the fractious community debate over passing a non-inclusive ENDA (i.e. "splENDA") in the House in 2007.