The White House has considerably scaled back their website language on gay and lesbian issues. There used to be hundreds of words devoted to GLBT issues. Now there are just a few sentences. Gone is the wording about how President Obama wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. In addition, the wording on "Don't Ask Don't Tell" has been changed slightly too.
The changes were just done in the last week or so. Click here to see the side by side comparison:
The question is why the change? The Brody File received this response from White House spokesman Shin Inouye who is Director of Specialty Media with the White House Office of Media Affairs
"As is the case with most websites, periodic changes are made to WhiteHouse.gov. Recently we overhauled the issues section to concisely reflect the President's broad agenda, and will continue to update these pages. The President's commitment on LGBT issues has not changed. Indeed, the website notes the President’s support of federal rights for LGBT couples. The President has consistently supported a legislative repeal of DOMA."(Defense of Marriage Act)
Do you buy the reason for the changes? Many folks in the gay community sure don't. They are NOT happy to say the least. Can you blame them? Imagine if the Bush White House scaled down some of it's conservative Christian causes? Imagine if they decided they weren't going to mention support for the Federal Marriage Amendment? Hey, words matter, especially at The White House.
More on all of this here and here.
Also, The New York Times has an interesting article about the White House and the gay community.Click here for that.
Let's face it. If I'm a gay activist (and let me just confirm I am not one) I could understand why they would be ticked at The White House. The gay community had big victories in Iowa and Maine and the President has been virtually silent. We all know why. While he is committed to the GLBT community, he also has said that marriage should be between a man and a woman. That makes for some tension and a path that must be carefully navigated.