Among the many conservative responses to President Obama’s second inaugural address was commentator Pat Buchanan, who appeared on Fox News to decry the President’s inclusion of various social issues. He described the speech as “not uplifting,” “not really poetry,” “pedestrian,” and “deeply partisan” but specifically attacked the reference to the Stonewall Riots:

BUCHANAN: This is a cross between a State of the Union speech with an agenda and a partisan rally given to the DNC. And so, I think, the president lost a real opportunity. Look, they usually talk about what? When I was a kid, Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. What was he talking about? Stonewall. That’s a barroom brawl in Greenwich Village in 1969, when cops were hassling gays in their bar, and the gays fought back and threw them all out. Does that belong in a presidential inaugural?

Jon Stewart took Buchanan to task on Tuesday night’s The Daily Show, retorting, “For the losing side of history, I’m Pat Buchanan.” Watch it:

Diminishing Stonewall to a “barroom brawl” is the equivalent of referring to Selma as a “street fight” or Seneca Falls as a “spa retreat.” It fails to recognize the historic turning point that Stonewall symbolized, including the launch of forthright activism through groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the first pride march. Given Buchanan’s penchant for attacking any kind of social justice, perhaps he resented the mere suggestion that gays and lesbians have had any kind of struggle for equality whatsoever.

The Illinois Family Institute, a designated hate group, is joining the chorus of conservatives claiming that gays and lesbians already have equality under the law. Unlike the National Organization for Marriage and Family Research Council, IFI is a bit more candid about how exactly it sees this vision of “equality”:

First, those who choose to place their same-sex attraction at the center of their identity are “treated like anyone else under the law.” They are perfectly free to participate in the sexually complementary institution of marriage. They choose not to. They are not asking to be treated equally. They are demanding to be treated specially. They want the unilateral right to jettison the central defining feature of marriage (i.e. sexual complementarity) — something, by the way, that polygamists, polyamorists, “minor-attracted persons,” and sibling-lovers are not permitted to do.

Second, does our president actually believe the idea he clunkily articulated in his speech, that “surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well”? Does he believe the love polygamists “commit” to their wives “must be equal as well”? Does he believe the love a high school teacher commits to his student “must be equal as well”? Does he believe the love five polyamorists of assorted genders “commit” to one another “must be equal” as well? Does he believe the love a brother and sister “commit” to each other “must be equal as well”?

IFI’s Laurie Higgins presents this not-so-compelling argument in the context of homosexuality is not “heritable” or “immutable,” an allusion to her belief in the validity of ex-gay therapy, despite ample research showing it is at best ineffective and at worst quite psychologically harmful. She goes on to claim Obama has “heretical views of marriage” that are “destructive” and “pernicious.”

It’s an important opportunity to recognize why the comparisons Higgins provides are offensive and inaccurate. Polygamists and polyamorists who are open to multiple simultaneous relationships are not acting on behalf of an innate sexual orientation. A high school teacher in a romantic relationship with a student is violating that student’s consent and compromising the learning environment. Laws against incest protect young people from rape, child molestation, and abusive incest as well as the genetic consequences of inbreeding. Though homosexuality has historically shared a reputation with these other forms of relationships for being taboo, modern understandings of sexuality negate the ongoing juxtaposition. Of course, IFI refuses to acknowledge the innate nature of sexual orientation or the lived experiences of gays and lesbians.

Once again, conservatives are trying to simultaneously claim that the LGBT community already has equality but doesn’t deserve it. Reality shows the opposite of both points to be true: LGBT people do not have equality in society, but there’s no justified reason for continuing to deny it.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was not pleased that President Obama used his inaugural speech Monday to compare the Stonewall riots to Selma and Seneca Falls. On his radio show yesterday, Perkins poorly described Stonewall as “homosexuals… pushing back for special rights,” and went on to claim that gays never have their civil rights violated:

PERKINS: Seneca Falls was a woman’s suffrage movement, giving women the right to vote. Selma, obviously, a push to ensure that African Americans — black American in this country had full voting rights and civil rights. Stonewall, many people may not be aware of, was a move of New York of homosexuals that were pushing back for special rights. To tie all those together, there is not a single person in this country today that is gay or lesbian that are denied the rights to vote, the right to work, or doing anything else.

What they’re seeking, and it’s a little disingenuous ’cause he doesn’t say it, but it’s code what he’s saying here. He’s going to push to give them the right to redefine marriage. They have every right that you and I have today. This President has a very loaded agenda.

Listen to it:

Perkins was right that Stonewall wasn’t about voting, but it was about another fundamental right: the freedom of assembly. Back in the 1960s, the LGBT community was regularly denied service in bars, and when they did find safe places to gather (like the Stonewall Inn), the police would regularly raid those bars and load the gay patrons into paddy wagons. The riots that ensued in June of 1969 were a response to police brutality from a community who simply wanted to enjoy a drink in a space where they didn’t have to hide their identities. There is nothing “special” about such an expectation in a free society.

Just like in the response from the National Organization for Marriage, Perkins claims that gays and lesbians have equality under the law, specifically mentioning “the right to work.” Of course, as noted in the earlier post, gays and lesbians can be fired from their jobs just for being gay and lesbian in 29 states — 34 states for people who are transgender. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill to create national protections for LGBT employees, has floundered in Congress for decades and notably, the Family Research Council opposes it!

It seems that conservatives are attempting to arbitrarily declare equality won on behalf of LGBT people, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. This “already treated equally” argument is designed to reserve marriage as a privilege just for heterosexual people, as well as protect the so-called “religious freedom” to flagrantly discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Perkins, Brian Brown, and the other pundits who have used this line in reaction to the President’s speech demonstrate that they have absolutely no comprehension of the discrimination, harassment, and inequality experienced by LGBT people every day, let alone compassion on their behalf.

President Obama made history Monday by supporting LGBT equality in his inaugural address, but conservatives are not happy about the nod to marriage equality. National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown responded by claiming that Obama’s words “further divide the nation” because “gay and lesbian people are already treated equally under the law”:

BROWN: Gay and lesbian people are already treated equally under the law. They have the same civil rights as anyone else; they have the right to live as they wish and love whom they choose. What they don’t have is the right to redefine marriage for all of society. In fact, six federal courts have rejected the idea that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in a summary decision in 1972. Furthermore, that vast majority of states have codified the commonsense view held for thousands of years that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. The President is profoundly wrong to imply that those who have acted to protect marriage have denied anyone’s rights by doing so.

A presidential inauguration should be a time for the nation to come together; instead President Obama chose to voice his support for a radical agenda advanced by some of his biggest campaign contributors to redefine marriage for everyone. Marriage brings our nation together. The concept of gay ‘marriage’ would have been totally alien to our founding fathers, and the protection and advancement of marriage between one man and one woman will immeasurably serve the common good of this country and further strengthen our Union. Today the President should have thrown his support behind this beautiful vision of men and women coming together in love to raise the next generation. Nonetheless, we pro-marriage Americans pledge to defend the institution which the President has chosen to undermine once again.

Brown distorts both history and present reality. The Supreme Court dismissed that 1972 case, Baker v. Nelson, with a one-sentence order that did not speak to constitutional rights whatsoever, opting simply not to take up the question of same-sex marriage at the time. However, six years prior in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, the court unanimously ruled that “marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.” According to Brown’s position, the right to legal protections with a committed partner and children is a “basic civil right” that only straight people deserve.

Gay and lesbian people are not treated equally under the law. In more than half of states, they can be summarily fired from their jobs or kicked out of their homes, let alone not marry their loved ones. (The situation is even worse for members of the transgender community, who are unfortunately largely invisible in discussions about same-sex marriage.) Brown clearly rejects the lived experience — if not the very existence — or the nations millions of same-sex families. There is nothing “radical” about these families seeking the same protections other families are entitled to, and nothing “equal” about them not having such access.

Richard Blanco, who is openly gay and the son of Cuban exiles, was invited to compose an original poem to commemorate President Obama’s second inauguration. Here is video of Blanco sharing that poem, “One Today,” with the full text below:

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President Obama just concluded what was arguably the most inclusive inaugural address ever delivered by any president. Of particular note was his inclusion of a direct call for marriage equality for gays and lesbians, reflecting the milestone from last May when he became the first president of the United States to ever make such an endorsement:

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.  For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.  Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.  Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.  Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.

As the first inaugural address to ever highlight the struggle for LGBT equality and the lives and families of gays and lesbians, this speech will no doubt be recorded in the annals of history as a pivotal moment in the long journey for social justice and freedom from oppression.

David Hall (OutServe-SLDN)

President Obama has named eight “citizen co-chairs” who will play a significant role in the inaugural events this weekend. Many are individuals who have benefited from the President’s economic and health care reforms, but one in particular is an Air Force pilot who was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but who worked to repeal that law:

Following in the footsteps of his father and stepfather, David joined the Air Force in March 1996. He was promoted to staff sergeant and graduated as a distinguished graduate from Airman Leadership School. After re-enlisting for another four years, he applied for Air Force ROTC and was selected under the Professional Officer Course – Early Release Program. He was excited to receive a pilot slot but was dis-enrolled for “homosexual conduct” in August 2002 after a fellow cadet told his commanders that he is gay. Following the Air Force, David worked on the successful repeal of DADT through Out Serve – SLDN.

There was a day where it would be profound if a President gave any recognition to a gay man whatsoever. Now, a gay man who works for an LGBT organization and who helped fight an anti-gay law is being featured as a spokesperson for the President’s vision of America. This is an incredibly symbolic milestone for the progress of LGBT equality.