January 12, 2009

Re Gene Robinson: Obama Still Doesn’t Get It, And Probably Never Will

Gene Robinson: Gay Bishop Giving Obama Inauguration Prayer

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a vocal gay rights leader, will open President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration with a prayer on Sunday’s kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial.

“I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities, We are One, to be held at the Lincoln Memorial,” Robinson wrote in an email to friends.

The announcement comes after weeks of outcry from the gay community over Obama’s choice of evangelical, anti-gay pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation.

“It’s important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way,” Robinson said in an interview with the Concord Monitor. …

With all due respect, Rev. Robinson, no; I don’t need to see myself represented just for the sake of seeing myself represented. There’s something more important than having a Token Homosexual thrown into the mix at the last minute in a transparent attempt to pacify Those Angry Gays — like never honoring a homophobic bigot in the first place (or, having learned your lesson, disinviting the homophobic bigot).

No, Gene Robinson does not cancel out or make up for Rick Warren. Gene Robinson never compared heterosexuality to incest or pedophilia. Gene Robinson never tried to take away the rights of heterosexuals. Gene Robinson is not a bigot.

It would be a waste of time to write at length about this new insult (and that’s what it is, an insult), because I’ve said it all before — when Obama threw another Token Homosexual into the mix at the last minute in a transparent attempt to pacify Those Angry Gays over the Donnie McClurkin fiasco.

Memo to Obama: You’re Only Making It Worse, October 25, 2007:

Barack Obama just doesn’t get it. He thinks that adding a gay minister to his gospel concert is going to make up for Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary, and Hezekiah Walker — and for the most obvious fact that this concert is meant to increase Obama’s appeal to southern black homophobes. …

Dear Senator Obama:

What a lame, transparent attempt at appeasement.

You wax poetic about “reaching out” to everyone, when all you’re doing is overreaching. If you’re so bent on bringing everybody into the “big tent,” what’s next — a community singalong with White Stormfront?

If all your rhetoric about your support for the LGBT community were based in reality, you would have taken the time to get to know us well enough to realize what a hurtful affront this whole stupid idea was in the first place — and then you wouldn’t have done it.

But, having made this grave error, you might have repaired the damage by dumping the ‘phobes from the tour. But you wouldn’t, and you won’t. So, instead, you think you’re going to offset the damage by throwing a gay preacher into the mix.

Wrong. You’re only making it worse. The saddest part is that you don’t even [understand] how you’re compounding the damage, no matter how many times, or in how many ways, we explain it to you.

Finally — and oh so typically — it never occurred to you that adding a gay minister to the bill is also going to piss off the very homophobes you’re “reaching out” to. Do you think they’re as stupid as you seem to think we are? They’re not.

More memory-refreshers:

Barack Obama Attempts Damage Control, Comes Up Short. Way Short.
October 23, 2007

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
October 26, 2007

For Those Still Dismissing the Obama-McClurkin Flap, Paul Schindler Explains It All for You. Again.
November 2, 2007

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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