The Wrong Kind of Action

By Dan Kirk on 06/17/2009 @ 01:26 PM

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Dear Mr. President:

We are not little children to be given a piece of candy when we’re upset. Like the proverbial piece of candy, offering benefits to spouses of LGBT families is a sweet offer, but it doesn’t really address any of the issues we have with your administration. Nor does it really mean anything except for the next 3 years and six months of your administration since you are signing a ‘memorandum’.

This really is a sweet offer, and if it was part of a serious campaign for LGBT rights, it would be well-appreciated. Because it was done the week after your administration filed a brief equating our relationships with incest and child rape; months into an administration where you have done little for us after promising to be our ‘fierce advocate’; and your administration announced it late the night before you actually signed the thing, it is almost like you’re ashamed of it and hope no one notices. Well, this little gesture is made more of a slap in the face than anything we can really appreciate.

Yes, we’ll take the piece of the candy even though what we really want is an invitation to the dinner table where you and your wife enjoy a sumptuous feast with your children. Meanwhile we’ll eat our own food at our own little table in the corner, with our spouses and our children. We’ll even show those children the little pieces of candy and tell them we should be grateful you’re even letting us sit at our own little table together. We may not be able to call that table a ‘marriage’ like you do with yours, but it serves the same function, and after all it’s better than nothing.

So, Mr. President, thank you for the piece of candy. Just don’t expect us to be overjoyed by it and instantly forgive you for all the insults we’ve received from your administration since you took office.

Sincerely,

Daniel R. Kirk Jr.
Yes on Gay Marriage

Dan Kirk has been active in the LGBT rights movement for sixteen years, starting with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” debates in the early 90s. Helping to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act has become one of his highest priorities.