FYOU BILL CLINTON

Last week, Bill Clinton gave a condescending interview to Anderson Cooper (who else?) where he stated that he had changed his mind and now supported gay marriage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcAKCy1Med4

With all due respect President Clinton, FYou! This is another case of too little too late and frankly, when you're back to being a private citizen, your "opinion" really has no actual power. Where was this opinion when you were actually President of the United States and had the power to do something about it. Under President Clinton, gay rights took 2 gaint steps back. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has to be the most discriminatory legislation ever passed. Can you imagine if it was the Defense of Interracial Marriage Act that said that states didn't have to recognize other states interracial marriages? And Don't Ask Don't Tell was another disastrous policy, that only eased when the U.S. was fighting 2 wars.

And President Obama is no better. Gay dollars were constantly pandered to in the last Presidential election with a wink and nod that after 8 years of a President requesting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage (effectively enshrining discrimination INTO the U.S. Constitution), Obama would be better. Well, 9 months in all we've gotten in same sex partner benefits for federal employees. Pardon me if I don't stand up and cheer. OK, I get it, healthcare and Afghanistan are priorities. Of course they are. But that doesn't mean Obama can't issue an executive order banning DOMA. It's going to be a really a long argument to link healthcare or Afghanistan and gay rights. I understand you don't need headwinds, but the voters who didn't vote for you are certain not pro gay rights either, so what's the difference? It's the same issue with Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

This brings me to my theory on gay rights. I think that gay rights make their biggest strides during Republican administrations. When the American public perceives that government is oppressing a minority, that engenders sympathy votes at the ballot box. Under Bush, we had gay marriage passing in states. During Democratic administrations, gays get lazy and just sit back and say, "Well, we've got a Democratic President, let's sit here and wait for our rights." With Obama, just like Clinton, we're still waiting. And what else have we gotten under Obama, a spirited defense of DOMA from the Obama administration? Not exactly the gay rights advocate presidential candidate who gave a very compelling argument on Logo for gay rights.

Frankly, at this point, Obama does NOT have my vote in 2012. He hasn't earned it.