Dan Choi Rips Obama Flyer

OP-ED : What to Do When the President Is Just Not That Into You

Lt. Dan Choi rips up Obama campaign flyer at NetRoots Nation conference : "I won't vote for Obama if he doesn't endorse marriage equality."

Lt. Choi was discharged under the military's oppressive "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and he has since become a trailblazing LGBT civil rights activist. In the above YouTube video, Lt. Choi explains the dissatisfaction that the President's former progressive supporters now come to feel toward the President, as the President prepares for his reëlection campaign in 2012.

After an Obama campaign worker passed out campaign flyers to a panel at the NetRoots Nation conference, Lt. Choi was outraged when he learned that Obama's campaign is sending messages that do not support marriage equality. Said Lt. Choi to the Obama campaign representative : "... [D]on’t tell me that I’m a bad person, go tell [President Obama] that he should believe in my full equality -- and then report back."

Our so-called allies in Washington, like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, don't want to fight for our full civil rights. That leaves people in the LGBT equality movement to fight for the runner-up cause, which is marriage equality. Marriage is a vehicle, which society uses to distribute rights. Until Sen. Gillibrand, or some of our other allies do something about our full civil rights, marriage equality is going to be what people are going to champion.

Marriage is a vehicle that society uses to distribute rights, privileges, property, services, public accommodations, and even respect. Until Congress adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, marriage equality is a stepping stone towards full civil equality.

Watch as Dan Pfeiffer, the White House Communications Director, denies that President Obama ever supported marriage equality, and Mr. Pfeiffer said that then candidate Obama didn't ''fill out'' a 1996 questionnaire, which the President signed ; watch as how Mr. Pfeiffer says that President Obama opposes marriage equality, then take a look at the simple, one-page questionnaire that is signed by President Obama.

1996-02-15 Obama Marriage Equality Questionnaire