As Lousy As Obama's Choice of Rick Warren Was, Threads Here Rationalizing & Excusing It Are Worse. [View All]

Last night I was truly disappointed to see how quickly some felt compelled to rally behind a very hurtful decision by Barack Obama against the GLBT community in selecting an outspoken bigot to be honored and spotlighted in front of the entire world next month.

Let's clear the smoke and the bullshit, shall we?

Rick Warren is not just a homophobe who keeps his loathing of my GBLT sisters and brothers to himself.

Rick Warren has built his career making horrible statements about my community. His hateful comments inspire discrimination and violence against a vulnerable group of Americans who still are denied fundamental rights in employment, housing, military retirement benefits, and even the right to a fair trial.

Rick Warren has used his power and influence and money to systematically oppress my family and my loved ones.

The threads that have appeared here at the DU in the last 24 hours to defend Obama's choice have grasped at every straw to defend the indefensible. And the threads have been all over the map in offering knee-jerk "rationale" to honoring Warren, and thereby insulting GLBT Americans.

Let me clear some of the air about some of these threads:

1.) Rick Warren did not help Obama win the election or help him carry Virginia.

2.) Barack Obama did not pick Rick Warren to win him over from his loathing of my community or his underwriting hateful campaigns against us.

3.) Barack Obama is not "balancing" the Inauguration with Rick Warren. If that was his intention, then he should also honor a racial bigot like David Duke, as BlueBear has pointed out.

4.) It's not just a "little thing" that some of us are "whining" about as a surprising amount of posters have said.

Are you interested in knowing what's almost as bad as being fired from your job because you are gay, being beaten in a parking lot because you are gay, being evicted from your apartment because you are gay, being discharged from the military because you are gay, being thrown out of your home as a child because you are gay, being bullied every day at school because you are gay, being kept from your companion in a hospital because you are gay, being denied a funeral because you are gay, and more?

You want to know what's almost as bad as all of that? Coming to a "progressive" blog and seeing how quickly millions of gay Democrats are rapidly dismissed by a heterosexual majority of pseudo cyber liberals who never miss a chance to weigh in about how my community should "prioritize" our concerns, how we "over-react" to events, how we "should focus on the big picture" instead of our "narrow agenda". Such pompous "advice" which is usually replete with homophobic giveaways in your language is, at least, informative of where you stand.