It’s down to work for LGBT rights

(Washington) As President Barrack Obama begins his first day of work at the White House expectations are high for America’s LGBT citizens.

Within minutes of Obama’s swearing-in at the Capitol on Tuesday the office White House Web site was completely updated to reflect the new administration – including the President’s LGBT …

Sutley appears at confirmation hearing

(Washington) Two top members of President-elect Barack Obama’s environmental team face questions from a Senate committee about the new administration’s plans to deal with global warming, water and air pollution and coal ash.

Lisa Jackson, picked to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and Nancy Sutley, tapped to chair the White House …

Gay Former Clinton Aide Lashes Out at Obama Over Warren

It’s becoming clear that while the gay rights movement’s leaders are thrilled with Obama’s invitation to Gene Robinson to join inauguration festivities, lots of its rank and file are still deeply distressed over Rick Warren giving the invocation on Inauguration Day. As a reporter, it’s often tricky figuring out if a movement’s—any movement, from the Christian right to the antiwar left—spokespeople are truly representing whom they claim to speak for.

Without polls, it’s really impossible to know.

But I’m getting more and more angry comments and E-mails from members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community furious with their nominal leaders. This E-mail from a former Clinton White House aide who requested anonymity captures the lingering anger over Warren:

. . . [T]he problem here goes well beyond Warren’s incendiary language equating gay marriage with incest. He is what he is. The greater problem lies in the President-Elect’s cruel calculation that this insult and offense to gay America is acceptable collateral damage for whatever plus he sees in the suck-up to Warren, giving profile and platform to this mega-merchant of discrimination in the first program agenda item during the first official act of his first day in office. I was one of the 12 first-ever openly gay White House staff members to take up work the day following President Clinton’s inauguration. His respect for gay Americans was evident even when setbacks and disappointments slowed the change agenda, and he certainly did not deliberately nor unnecessarily scheme to sell out gay Americans on his first day in office to score points with opponents. Ordinary gay Americans will need to hold this new Administration to the tenets of its campaign and to the idealism of its Inaugural language — and to a fundamental expectation for respect. The Warren invitation remains a disgrace and a blemish on day one of the new Administration. Shame on Obama.

For a lot of LGBT folks, the heartburn over Warren will linger awhile. But what if Obama delivers on a major LGBT political goal in his first term, something like ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” like the president-elect’s spokesman recently promised? It’s hard to imagine the current gay ambivalence over Obama outlasting such a huge advance for the LGBT cause. The reality of policy would quickly overwhelm symbolic concerns.

See Gay Former Clinton Aide Lashes Out at Obama Over Warren
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Lesbian named to Obama environment team

(Washington) President-elect Barack Obama has made it official, naming Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Sutley is the first prominent member of the LGBT community to earn a senior role in the Democrat’s new administration. Speculation began circulating a week ago that she would be named …

Obama Appoints First High-Level Gay Official For Environmental Council

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has selected a deputy mayor of Los Angeles to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, transition officials said Wednesday.

Nancy Sutley is the first prominent member of the gay and lesbian community to earn a senior role in the Democrat’s new administration.

With many of his top White House and Cabinet posts filled, Obama now is focusing on fleshing out his natural resources and environment team, and could formally introduce his choices for interior secretary, energy secretary and environmental protection agency chief within weeks if not days.

Two transition officials disclosed Sutley’s selection on the condition of anonymity because Obama had not yet made the announcement.

See Obama Appoints First High-Level Gay Official For Environmental Council

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Obama taps Kingston gay activist as part of advisory team

INGSTON — Barack Obama’s transition team has reached out to local gay activist Ginny Apuzzo to be part of an advisory team for the new administration.

The Obama team has asked that Apuzzo not go into any details of her new assignment, and she has agreed.

But only someone unfamiliar with Apuzzo’s career would be surprised by the appointment of the long-time community organizer, advocate for people with AIDS, and state and federal administrator to the temporary post.

Apuzzo attended SUNY New Paltz and taught high school history in Marlboro and Newburgh before becoming a Sister of Charity. In 1970, she came out as a lesbian, continued to teach at Brooklyn College, ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly and won a court battle for what is now the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She became a national spokeswoman for the effort to win understanding and support for people suffering from AIDS-related diseases.

One of her proudest achievements was negotiating to get Social Security disability payments for people with AIDS.

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Times Herald-Record, NY -