A New Era II

I am sitting here at work watching the telecast of the inauguration of President Obama and just tearing up. I am a Singaporean living in the United States for the past 9 years now and I really do not remember watching the auguration(s) of bush. I think I was at Civic Center with throngs of people protesting the inauguration.

Mickey still always reminded me that even though he felt sick to his stomach after election nights 8 years ago (and was even more sick 4 years later), I kept asking… well… okay… maybe Bush won… but how bad can he be? He said I was naïve…. But as a new transplant, who just moved his entire life to come to the United States in order to be with the person that he fell in love with and still trying to understand politics here…. Really, how bad can it be?

Well… eight years have taught me a lot and the truth is that we have been through a lot. We are now at war with 2 countries, we have killed thousands of innocent people in Iraq, we have ignored the rule of law, we have ignored Geneva conventions and start torturing people, we have split the country rather than unite the country, we encouraged people to go shopping rather than sacrifice or take care of one another after 9/11, we have used LGBT people disparagingly as a wedge issue to win elections…. The list goes on.

Look, I am not totally all crazy over Barack Obama, however, over the past months, over the past few days, I have been overwhelmed by the change in attitude…. I feel that people are chirpier, more optimistic about the future…. I feel that people are aware of the difficulties that we are going to be facing… but at the same time, I feel people feeling resolved that they are ready to roll up their sleeves and work and sacrifice and take care of each other.

I am still disappointed that our president who comes from an inter-racial marriage and whose family is a rainbow portrait of multi-ethnicity would say that he does not support gay marriage but supports civil unions. It is a wonder for me that while he is a product of “separate but equal is not equal”, he would not support gay marriage but thinks civil unions is sufficient. That said, this is the first time, in my memory at least, that our President’s agenda as printed on whitehouse.gov includes LGBT issues as a civil rights issues.

To me – that is a start. To quote Bruce Vilanch “Kids, the only solution for us is to reluctantly, but firmly, vow to be the unpopular people who force our new leader's feet to the fire on a regular basis” http://wockner.blogspot.com/2009/01/gay-vips-on-obama-25.html

I hope and wish that this president fulfills his promise to all of us. The United States of America right now is in a BIG mess… the financial world is collapsing, people are losing their house to foreclosures, unemployment is very high, we are in a HUGE deficit and would be for a long time, people are losing health insurance …. Tough times…. But no matter what, as President Obama calls us to work together and to sacrifice, we also need to continue a watchful eye to ensure that he guarantees basic civil rights for all of us, for all LGBT people.

At the end of the day though, I think Scott Long, Director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Division says it best…. “Before we're LGBT people, or Americans, we're human beings. We deserve a government that respects human rights, and whether it tramples on them in Fallujah or New Orleans, we all suffer. Of course, there's more on the agenda. I'm all for the big tent (or is it wide stance?) that Obama seems to be attempting. The quarter of Americans who believe that homosexuals are bound straight for hell are not going away; the sensible thing is to look for some minimal measure of common ground, so that the diatribes can give way to dialogue at least around the edges. But he still needs to stand up for basic civil rights: pass ENDA (trans-inclusive), endorse the Uniting American Families Act, disavow DOMA, let soldiers ask and tell. He needs to be reminded every day that human rights are indivisible. After eight years of duplicity and division, even the most idealistic leaders may succumb to the habitual lapses of a corrupted government, and forget their way." http://wockner.blogspot.com/2009/01/gay-vips-on-obama-13.html