Puffin’s Place

So Obama is going to toss a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Stillwell riots. Hmm. That’s about like intoning, “Some of my best friends are gay” while festooning the White House with rainbow tissue paper.

It’s easy. Creates no discord or risk. Puts one on the side of the angels without risk of having to wrestle with the devil.

And it is ludicrous. What gay man or woman today is comforted by knowing that the pres, or anyone else, has gay friends? Who gives a rat’s ass? So long as DADT is the ruling mantra of the armed services and the Defense of Marriage Act gets White House support, why would any of us breathe a sigh of relief that a 40-year old riot is being commemorated!

Not only are campaign pledges being ignored and, in some cases, betrayed, but Obama shows no sign of taking on the hard stuff: civil and legal rights. And the Roiling Brains in print and tv tell us to cool it and wait till some significant problems have been solved.

Memo: DADT and the DMA are pretty vital for the gay population. Try taking property rights away from straights and see how patient Jack and Jill will be.

Obama, if you haven’t time and energy and will to tackle the real issue, at least don’t wave symbolic tissue paper at us.