compiled by Howard Israel
"As I watched the live stream of (President Obama's) speech online, I flipped through the pages 'Why We Can't Wait,' the impassioned, 166-page account of segregated Birmingham written by Martin Luther King, Jr., who, like Obama, was a recipient of the Noble Peace Prize. The quote on the book cover read: 'Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.' Why gays can't wait is because 29 states ban same-sex marriages, while the Defense of Marriage Act waits to be repealed. Why gays can't wait is because gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military, while being sent to fight wars, can't be open about who they are. Why gays can't wait is because people lose their jobs merely because they are gay. Why gays can't wait is because gay rights, after all, is civil rights. Obama knows this. He's said as much. Now it's time for actions. Everyone is watching."
– Jose Antonio Vargas, in a column titled "Why Gays Can't Wait – Gay Rights is Civil Rights," about President Obama's speech to the LGBT community at the HRC Dinner, http://www.huffingtonpost.com, Oct. 11.
"We believe this is a poison pill, poisonous enough that we refuse to be blackmailed into voting for a piece of social agenda that has no place in this bill."
– Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), senior Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, about why he voted against the House/Senate fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill because the bill contains provisions to expand the definition of violent federal hate crimes to those committed because of a victim's sexual orientation and gender identity, http://www.nytimes.com, Oct. 9. The bill passed with 237 Democrats and 44 Republicans voting in support of the bill.
"I think this march represents the passing of the torch. The points of power are no longer in the halls of Washington or large metropolitan areas. It's decentralized now. You have young activists and gay people from all walks of life converging on Washington not because a national organization told them to, but because they feel the time is now."
– Corey Johnson, 27, activist and blogger on Towleroad.com, interviewed in an article titled "Gay Rights Marchers Press Cause in Washington," at the National Equality March, http://www.nytimes.com, Oct.12.
"Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group, and on Sunday there will be a massive gay rally in Washington. Which makes this weekend the perfect time for Obama to announce he's repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because it's the right thing to do and two, because it will throw the conservative base into such a frenzied, pants-shitting panic that they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and let us all get some actual work done. But of course that's not going to happen. I can tell you what the president is going to tell his audience tomorrow: How much he supports them. How much he agrees with them. And how he wishes he was President so he could help them out. … There is one thing the president can do with the stroke of a pen: He can let gays serve openly in the military. It's called an executive order. Harry Truman wrote one in 1948 for blacks in the military, and that was that. But forget all the good arguments for repeal, like because it was promised to us in the campaign or because it gets lonely on a submarine. Do it because it'll make Rush Limbaugh explode like a bag full of meat dropped from a helicopter. Do it because it'll make Sarah Palin go rogue in her pants."
– Bill Maher, Host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," in a column titled "New Rule: Everyone Deserves Equal Rights," about President Obama's speech to the LGBT community at the HRC Dinner and the March on Washington, http://www.huffingtonpost.com, Oct. 9.
"At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how I see all this. It doesn't really matter how Pam Spaulding, Hillary Rosen, Dan Savage, Daniel Choi, and Michelangelo Signorile see all this. It doesn't matter which of the countless different messages you will hear at the National Equality March most closely fits which faction within the human rights community who supports equality for all. … What really matters is that right now, in America, there is a system of government and body of civil laws that promise one thing for ALL citizens, yet fails to deliver on that promise. What matters is what is ACCURATE in this nation of laws. What is FAIR in this church-state separated country. What form of treatment should be EMBOLDENED in this great land of the free. That conversation is between the president and his own learned mind, compassionate heart, and principled spine. The only paper he needs to read to find that sort of advice starts with the line "We the people….," and the only protestations to which he should need to listen come from the clock that refuses to run backwards."
– Jeremy Hooper, on his blog titled "Don't read this, President Obama. My words aren't what matter," http://www.goodasyou.org, Oct. 11.
"Rep. Barney Frank says he'd rather see gay rights supporters lobbying their elected officials than marching in Washington this weekend, calling the demonstration 'a waste of time at best.' Frank said that he considers such demonstrations to be 'an emotional release' that does little to pressure Congress. 'The only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass,' Frank said."
– Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), in an interview with The Associated Press prior to the National Equality March in Washington, Associated Press, Oct. 10.
