................Gays in the US & Obama....................

There seems to be a serious division in the gays in my 2nd homeland of the United States.

One camp is all "He's done nothing for us and isn't keeping any of the promises he made to us to get elected!"

The second camp is "He has only been in office four months - these things take time and we need to be patient. Civil rights is not something that happens overnight !"

I find President Obama perplexing myself. Having been employed in both Local and State government, I know and understand how slowly the wheels do grind within those particular machines. It is incredibly complex to get anything done and its quite frustrating to many a civil servant, and is usually made up of teams of people working behind the scenes.

On the other hand, one usually hears about the little steps that make up progress. And it usually goes something like this....

• Committee is set up.
• Committee agrees to the terms of their review
• Committee talks to different focus groups
• Committee issues periodic statements regarding progress.
• Etc etc.

Unfortunately, I think the issue here is lack of communication.

For all we know, President Obama's people could be working hard on these issues. But, there is no communication regarding their activities.

Add to that a Press Secretary who is still finding his feet and coming across as a little wobbly, people are starting to ask serious questions.

President Obama made commitments to his GLBT followers.

As a politician, he has absolutely no requirement to fulfil those promises - he is a politician after all, and they make promises to get elected.

However, President Obama is in a unique position as being a member of a minority that has benefitted from progress in civil rights. As such, he has a higher duty to exemplify those principles and to act accordingly.

He is the President of ALL communities in the United States, and a global recession is certainly something that would take up much of his time, but he has staff aplenty and, as any good leader would, can delegate the grunt work to make progress on an issue.

The Obama administration is new, and they are finding their feet. But their inability to accurately relay their message is hurting them and - by definition - President Obama.

"Don't Ask Don't Tell" is an issue that is hurting and haunting America. At a time when every member of the Defence Forces are needed - hundreds are being discharged. Some of these are Arab linguists, others are officers with decorated careers, others are grunts who simply wish to serve their country.

I hope for the GLBT brethren in the US that President Obama and his administration start to make some progress on this issue, otherwise it could very well become the Achilles Heel of the President.