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Warren peace: HRC offers chance for Obama to atone for pastor disaster by Lisa Keen
contributing writerWednesday Dec 24, 2008 Debate heated up during the past week over President-elect Barack Obama’s invitation to evangelical Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. And as it has, the Human Rights Campaign has offered Obama a way to make amends, while a lone activist has called for a doughnut strategy.
Mainstream media sank its teeth into the controversy early on, with reports that "gays are furious" about Obama bestowing such an honor on a pastor who has equated marriage between two same-sex adults with marriage between a brother and a sister or an adult marrying a child.
"President-elect Barack Obama’s honeymoon with the liberal wing of his party came to a crashing halt" on Dec. 17, said Washington Post political correspondent Chris Cillizza.
The Associated Press called Obama’s invitation to Warren "an overture to conservative Christians" and a signal of "his willingness to upset liberals by tilting to the center." The New York Times called it an "olive branch."
The Los Angeles Times quoted gay activist Howard Bragman as saying Obama "saw that Bill Clinton did damage to his early presidency by appearing to pander to the gay and lesbian community."
"Obama has chosen a different tack," said Bragman.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell called the choice "insulting" to black civil rights activists.
"How do you put a civil rights icon like the Rev. Joseph Lowery," who was asked to give the closing prayer, "at the tail end of an event that honors the nation’s election of its first African-American president? The only reason I can think of for Obama to give Warren such an honor is that he is already thinking about re-election."
At first, Warren did little to calm the upset. In an interview with a Wall Street Journal affiliate Dec. 12, he suggested that the LGBT civil rights movement "is not really about civil rights, but a desire for approval." By Dec. 20, he was telling Associated Press that he is a huge fan of lesbian rock star Melissa Etheridge and has all her albums. Warren spoke with Etheridge when they both appeared at an annual meeting of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach, California, also on Dec. 20. He reportedly told the audience that he loves Muslims and, "for the media’s purpose, I happen to love gays and straights."
The Los Angeles Timesreported that Etheridge was "among the first to stand" and applaud Warren for his remarks at that meeting.
On NBC’s Dateline Dec. 18, Warren reiterated his respect for gay people and claimed that, when protesters came to his megachurch to protest his support for Proposition 8, his church served them doughnuts and water.
That, according to The New York Times, prompted one activist to start a doughnuts-for-Warren movement -- encouraging gay civil rights supporters to buy Dunkin’ Donut Cards, customize them with their photos of same-sex couples and send the cards to Warren.
Meanwhile, John Aravosis, a gay political blogger in D.C. (americablog.com) reported Dec. 19 that the website for Warren’s California-based Saddleback Church states that, while gay people can attend church, "someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at [sic] a member at Saddleback Church." MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow followed up on Aravosis’s report in a segment on her show, and by Dec. 22 the exclusionary language had apparently been removed from the Saddleback Church website. (For more on Warren’s views on gays see "How extreme is Rick Warren?"
And the controversy has led to some backlash barbs for gays, too. Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan urged Obama to "ignore them."
"
They’re looking increasingly shrill," wrote Eagan. "They’re on the ideological purity bandwagon that for too long has prevented Washington from accomplishing anything."
By contrast, Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson expressed support for Warren’s critics, writing, "If Warren is allowed to give the invocation, the bright American rainbow that got Obama into office will dim in a way that spells danger for what else Obama will not stand up for."
HRC Blueprint
The Human Rights Campaign on Dec. 19, urged President-elect Obama to "turn the corner on this controversy" by committing to HRC’s "Blueprint for Positive Change" on LGBT issues. The Blueprint calls for Obama to accomplish five things within specific time periods. It asks Obama, in the first 100 days of his presidency, to issue an executive order that "reaffirms" regulations in place to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in federal employment; and to "develop a plan to begin the process" of repealing the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy of excluding gays from the military. In the first six months, it asks that he "work with Congress to sign hate crimes legislation." And then, without specific timetables, it asks that he commit to supporting "only a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act" and that he "work with Congress" to end unequal tax treatment of domestic partnership benefits.
The latter refers to federal tax law that enables a married employee to provide health insurance coverage to his or her spouse without counting that benefit as income. However, for a gay employee, the fair market value of that health coverage is added to the gross income on which the employee must pay taxes. (The Center for American Progress and the Williams Institute estimate that a gay employee pays more than $1,000 per year more in taxes because of that disparity.)
HRC’s website offers visitors an opportunity to "sign" its petition to Obama, saying that the signer is "disappointed" that he invited Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration and asks that he "restore my trust by pledging to support" the Blueprint.
A parade note
Contrary to early reports, this inaugural will not be the first to invite a gay contingent to participate in the presidential inaugural parade. Julian Potter was deputy director of the parade in 1993, for President Clinton’s first inauguration. She said she personally invited the Lesbian and Gay Marching Band to participate. The criteria for selection prior to 1993, she said, had been to include one band for each state. But with the Clinton first inaugural, the planners decided to be more inclusive by adding bands along the parade route. The Lesbian and Gay Marching Band was given a prime spot just two blocks away from the presidential reviewing stand.
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