Dec 26, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

Gay leaders are assailing President-elect Barack Obama for inviting a pastor who supported California’s ban on same-sex marriage to speak at his inaugural festivities and for filling his Cabinet without nominating any openly gay officials.

Obama last week announced that he had picked Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in California and a strong proponent of Proposition 8, to give the invocation during the Jan. 20 inauguration. Later in the week, Obama announced the last of his Cabinet nominees, revealing that none of his department heads would be openly gay.

Following the revelation of Warren’s invite, several gay leaders responded by criticizing the man they helped elect.

In a Dec. 17 letter to Obama, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the Warren invite a “genuine blow to LGBT Americans” and said it “tarnished the view” that gays have a seat at Obama’s table.

“Rev. Warren has often played the role of general in the cultural war waged against LGBT Americans, many of whom also share a strong tradition of religion and faith,” Solmonese said.
In a statement released the same day, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, called Warren’s invite “a direct affront” to Obama’s campaign “theme of inclusivity.”

“This was a divisive choice, and clearly not one that will help our country come together and heal,” she said.

In a Dec. 18 statement, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the only out gay man serving in Congress, said he was “very disappointed” with Obama’s decision.

“Religious leaders obviously have every right to speak out in opposition to anti-discrimination measures, even in the degrading terms that Rev. Warren has used with regard to same-sex marriage,” Frank said. “But that does not confer upon them the right to a place of honor in the inauguration ceremony of a president whose stated commitment to LGBT rights won him the strong support of the great majority of those who support that cause.”

Following the Warren flap, Solmonese called on Obama to promptly take action on certain gay-related initiatives.

“The Presidential Inaugural Committee may not change their minds on Rev. Warren,” Solmonese said in a Dec. 19 statement, “but President-elect Obama can turn the corner on this controversy by officially committing to … a concrete plan for LGBT equality.”

Solmonese called the plan “HRC’s Blueprint for Positive Change.” It includes several initiatives:

• Issuing an executive order within the first 100 days of his administration to reaffirm protections for federal workers based on sexual orientation while expanding them to include gender identity.

• Working with Congress to enact hate crimes legislation within six months.

• Developing a plan within 100 days to begin the process of repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, which prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military.

Solmonese also urged Obama to work with Congress to end unequal tax treatment of domestic partnership benefits and to enact an employment non-discrimination law that includes transgender protections, but HRC didn’t suggest a timeline to approve such legislation.

Obama, Warren defend invitation

Obama defended his decision to invite Warren to his inauguration during a Dec. 18 news conference by saying that it’s “no secret” that he is “a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.”

“What I’ve also said is that it is important for America to come together even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues,” he said. “What we have to do is create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.”

Obama noted that he was previously invited to speak at Warren’s church despite Warren’s “awareness that I held views entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights.”

But Frank said “it is irrelevant” that Warren invited Obama to speak at his church because Warren extended a similar invitation to Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Warren, who declined a Blade interview request, also defended his invite from Obama in a speech at the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s annual convention in Long Beach, Calif., where he said he loves “gays and straights,” according to the Associated Press.

“Three years ago I took enormous heat for inviting Barack Obama to my church because some of his views don’t agree [with mine],” he said. “Now he’s invited me.”

In an interview Dec. 18 on Dateline NBC, Warren said he supported Proposition 8 in California, even though it may have caused a loss of faith in him, because “if that hadn’t passed, the pain it would have caused to far millions more … would ...