President Obama Asks Gays To Be A Bit More Patient

President Obama extended an invitation to gay and lesbians leaders Monday, to a reception held in the East Room of the White House, meant literally to mark the anniversary of Stonewall, and meant figuratively to quell growing anger and resentment by the LGBT community who feel that they have been betrayed and compromised by the Administration who, by all appearances, have adopted an inane passive/aggressive stance towards gay rights, including and most importantly the military ban on gays serving openly and on gay marriage.

Obama told the audience that he understood their frustration, saying “I know many in this room don’t believe progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago,” a rather remarkable series of sentences that to my knowledge, for the first time with the White House, that correlates the struggle for civil rights fought by blacks in the fifties and sixties to the struggle for equal rights fought by homosexuals for decades.

As for the timeline, the President took time to explain that change takes time, offering that “as commander in chief I do have a responsibility to see that this change is administered in a practical way and a way that takes over the long term.”