Adams and Obama

Wow! Could more have happened this week and could it be more confusing?!? It's almost like Election Day all over again -- Most candidates win but Prop 8 passes in California. Now we've got a stunning start to President Obama's term while Portland Out Gay Mayor is struggling for his political career. UGH, can't we ever get anything good without a major dose of bad to wash it down?!?

For those who haven't heard, it seems that Portland's Mayor asked some folks to lie for him when facing questions about a sexual liaison he had. Instead of saying, "I had sex with an adult and really it's not any of your business," he chose to say he only "mentored" a young man.

Well, now the facts got too hard to deny and so Mayor Adams has admitted he lied about his relationship with another politician's intern. But of course that doesn't stop the media from implying that he lied about having sex with a minor. So now we have a police investigation into the facts and that will tell us one thing, but still folks are pretty upset just about the lie.

My takes is, if Adams resigns, then he really did do something bad and it's only a matter of time before that comes out. If he stays put, then he had sex with an adult and will have to work extra hard to get voters to forget that he lied about his sex life. To be honest, I think most Portlanders could care less who politician sleep with as long as they aren't minors or, and this is really where I think this thing gets sticky, people under the politician.

As I posted on Gay Rights Watch:

...is this really the proper thing for a mentor to be doing with the people he is mentoring? Do we think bosses should sleep with their employees? Should professors sleep with students? Or maybe what people really want to say is that these are exactly the types of relationships that SHOULD NOT be sexual because later on it is much harder to understand why a mentor has made a certain choice introduction, or why an employee received a promotion or raise, or why a student got a high grade. Unfortunately, you don’t have to be be rightwing to view this as an abuse of trust by an individual in a position of power. This is something that I think IS troubling people about this “scandal.”

Too bad the Media can't figure out a way to have THAT discussion.

ON TO GOOD NEWS

Since King George II took the White House in 2001 I've adopted a very off-hands approach to following politics. I figure whatever will happen will happen and it's not worth getting too worked up about. So I laid low and explained why I couldn't vote for Obama but what a difference winning the election makes!

Only two clicks into the new White House website you find the Obama Administrations Civil Right Agenda. The bottom half of the page has a heading "Support for the LGBT Community" and lists the following:

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: ... include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability ...
• Fight Workplace Discrimination: ... anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity ...
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: ... that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples ... enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions ...
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage...
• Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: ... The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited ...
• Expand Adoption Rights: ... ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation ...
• Promote AIDS Prevention: ... implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy ... increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities ... age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system ... lifting the federal ban on needle exchange ... confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.
• Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: ... accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS ...

Gee, if only they would have said that on the campaign site, they would have had me a long time ago!!!

But seriously, I've really wanted to wait to see what the administration does, not really what it says it will do and so far so good! Granted, nothing particularly of import to the LBGTQ community has happened, but here are the things I am excited about:

• Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State
• Suspension of Guantanamo trials, limiting the use of torture in interrogation, and close the base in a year
  
• Lifting the ban on Federal funding to NGOs that also provide abortions
• Named George Mitchell "Special Envoy for Middle East peace" and Richard Holbrooke as special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan
• Instructed all agencies and departments to "adopt a presumption in favor" of Freedom of Information Act requests
• Telephoned Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, President Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdallah of Jordan and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority
• Revoked Executive Order 13233, which had ... limit[ed] access to the records of former United States Presidents

Info taken from BBC and Wikipedia

Not bad for a start, huh? The only thing I was disappointed with is his administration's stated unwillingness to open a dialog with Hamas. Okay, I'll bow to their superior information on that one, but I really would have liked them to willing to talk to any legitimate organization actively working against American policy. Who knows, if progress starts again, then maybe Hamas will change in order to get to talk, especially when other people are invited to the table (say, maybe like Iran and whoever takes control in North Korea).

All in all, I think they are setting the right tone and not just saying how they will be different from the last administration but already doing things differently. So, now it's up to Congress. Will they play ball or do they think the President's too big for his britches?