We’ve bitched a lot about Barack Obama‘s tepid support of our community since his election so it was lovely to see Billie Jean King and Harvey Milk included in his list of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday. Milk’s nephew Stuart accepted the award:
It’s easier, of course, to give a medal to a dead man than to fight for the causes he believed in and talk radio host Charles Karel Bouley is right when he says, “The fact is, at this point in America’s history, I’m not sure Milk would even accept.”
But even a minor gesture is still a gesture — especially when we get to enjoy seeing the religious right throw one of their predictably nasty hissy-fits over it. My vague disappointment with Obama is always, always trumped by the sheer insanity of his opponents, like the family that took their hatred of the president all the way to the doghouse:
Now there’s a Letterman Stupid Pet Trick. Wonder where they got the idea from?
But it’s been a hard week for homophobes — the cash-strapped Focus on the Family has had to cancel their annual ‘ex-gay’ conference and this weekend’s “kiss-in” events promise to upset them even further. The organizers have gone through hell planning the protests and it seems pretty clear that Harvey Milk would be proud — medal or no medal.
Why you can trust Xtra
