LGBT:Time To Rally The Troops!

Okay, let's do this. It's time to get the obligatory "first post" out of the way. I guess this is supposed to be an ice breaker, so I'll set you up with some background information. I'm twenty years old, I live in a small, conservative town (I'm currently drawing up escape plans), and I am about as lost as they come. I'm a vegetarian for moral purposes and I am pretty confident that I always will be. I love punk rock music. I was given the moniker "Brittany Abstract" in high school, and it is in reference to my preference for abstract art. Without further ado, I would like to move on to discussing my first gripe for this blog.

I'm sure this hasn't escaped anyone's attention, but President Elect Barack Obama's choice to make Pastor Rick Warren part of the inauguration ceremony has not been well received. In fact, he really hasn't made much of an effort to get on the gay community's good side at all. While I never expected him to openly support the LGBT community in it's efforts, I also hoped he wouldn't completely alienate them. Oops.

I understand what Obama was thinking when he made this decision. He is clearly trying to create a bipartisan atmosphere in order to get former McCain supporters behind him, but as I'm sure he is beginning to discover, there is a fine line between gaining conservative support and effectively disenfranchising an entire demographic. I support the spirit of open mindedness that our soon-to-be president is trying to introduce to the White House, but this may have been a tad too much, way too soon. Fortunately this is just a ceromonial thing, and while we should make it clear to him that we don't approve of the message that he will be sending on January twentieth, we really shouldn't dwell on it too much and instead focus on more pragmatic issues (I don't actually have to tell you which issues I'm referring to, do I?).

The bottom line for Gay America is this; If ever there was a time to unify and stand up for your rights, this would be it. I'm serious about this. I plan on supporting the LGBT community in any way I can, but the truth is that nothing is going to happen unless you put aside irrelevant differences and make yourselves a force to be reckoned with. It's crunch time, and if we don't convince our leaders that things need to be done differently around here, the consequences could be quite grave.

I encourage everyone, gay or otherwise to visit www.jointheimpact.com to get involved in this issue. I would also like to encourage everyone to tell Obama exactly how they feel about this and every other decision he makes while in office. http://change.gov/page/s/yourstory


Take care of each other.
xoxo