Proudly Out: Rick Warren

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs and listservs have lit up brighter than the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and all the Chanukah Menorahs in Brooklyn. It’s all because President-Elect Barack Obama invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

Some say Obama has sold out the LGBT community. Warren, the pastor at the Saddleback Church, a mega-house of worship in Southern California, played a role in passing Prop 8, the ballot initiative that overturned the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Warren’s rhetoric on LGBT people has been typical of the Radical Christian Right. Like Sarah Palin, Warren purports to having gay friends but wouldn’t for a second think those friends should have the same rights and responsibilities as sacred heterosexuals do.

I could go on and on about what he has to say about us but, honestly, it’s just not that important. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care what the Rick Warrens of the world say about the LGBT community. I think it’s time that we stop letting others define us. That’s not to say we shouldn’t let the Obama administration know we’re disappointed with this choice but frame it so that our voices are more an affirmation of who we are rather than an attack on who Warren is. By attacking Warren, we just give him more credibility, more media play.

Let’s face it. Rick Warren and his crew aren’t going away—but, then again, neither are we. Obama picked him as a symbolic gesture to show that the big tent actually belongs to the Democratic Party. But, really, what will be the memorable words spoken on Inauguration Day—those of Rick Warren or those of Barack Obama? I venture to say the long-lasting quotes will be from the man who has just been sworn into office. Warren will have his 15 minutes in the national spotlight and move aside for a man who will have at least four years in international Klieg lights.

Let me be clear—I’m not an Obamapologist. There are things he’s already done—really important things that disappoint me. Despite our best efforts of affirming who we are, there isn’t one out person on the President’s Cabinet and there were a few good choices. Mary Beth Maxwell, an out lesbian labor leader who is the Executive Director of American Rights at Work was passed over for California Congresswoman Hilda Solis. Maxwell would have been great but her confirmation would have been difficult—she is the power behind the “Employee Free Choice Act” which would make it easier for workers to form unions. Perhaps Obama didn’t want the drama that would have come with her confirmation hearings.

Fred Hochberg, a gay man with great business credentials who was the Acting Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bill Clinton was on the shortlist to take the helm of the SBA again—only this time he wouldn’t be acting. Instead, Obama picked Karen Gordon Mills in New York City-based venture capitalist.

I guess the feminist in me should be happy—there are far more women in this cabinet than any others but where are the lesbians and gays? Right now, there’s only one that I know of—Nancy Sutley who will head up the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Like I’ve said before and will say again, I’ll take competence over queerness any day of the week but there are and will continue to be very competent folks in the LGBT community who want to serve in the Administration.

Obama has one more chance to show that his tent is big enough for LGBT appointments. The LGBT community, as well as retired military officers, has been pushing William White, the open gay chief operating officer at the U.S.S. Intrepid Museum Foundation to be the next Secretary of the Navy.

Everyone seems to love him and what a coup it would be and what a clear message it would send to name an openly gay man to be Secretary of the Navy. It’s a civilian position—so Obama wouldn’t be breaking the law—you know, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?—but it would set the stage for its repeal—which Obama has said he backs.

There are battles and then there are battles. I’d rather pick the ones that can have a real impact on our lives—like having openly LGBT people in the White House shaping policy and giving us a voice.

We’ve lost the Rick Warren battle. But that doesn’t mean we’ve lost the war.