Obama is more pro-gay than Calvin Coolidge

Welcome to the new Obama administration talking point to explain away the grand disappointment that this President has become for so many gay people: He's done more for gays than any president in history!

Really? He's better than Millard Fillmore? Than Rutherford B. Hayes? Well then, what's to complain about? So long as the current state of civil rights in America is better than it was in 1823, then we should all be counting our lucky stars.

Of course, that's not the way you judge civil rights advancements, and it's not the way you judge presidents. They are judged by the times they live in. They are judged by what they accomplish given their current constraints. Of course Barack Obama has done more for gays than almost any president in history, since for most of American history the country has been rabidly anti-gay. Hell, even George Bush did more for gays than most any president in American history, because all the rest of them were pretty darn awful too.

What an absurdly greasy way to try to explain away the President's inability, or unwillingness, to keep his promise to be a fierce advocate to our community. Rather than touting how much better he is on gay issues than Martin van Buren, perhaps the President could simply keep the promises he made during the campaign: to fully repeal DADT and DOMA, and to pass ENDA. So far, none of those have happened.

I've written more about this over at AMERICAblog Gay.