Mr. President, We Are Not an “Interest Group”

Today, Presidential Spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked about the president’s announcement this afternoon that the U.S. federal government will offer some, very limited employment benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees.

The White House press corps revisited that issue (and DOMA, and DADT) a few times, from different angles, but to me, the most telling exchange was this one (emphasis, mine):

Q In terms of the timing for the President signing the memorandum, was there any pressure at all on the White House from gay rights groups, and especially in light of the language that Jake was referring to?

MR. GIBBS: No. This is — that was something that the White House and OPM have been working on for quite some time.

Q So the White House hasn’t been feeling any pressure, even beyond just signing this — pressure in general from gay rights groups?

MR. GIBBS: Look, I would say there are any number of interest groups that express their concerns and opinions. We respect those. I think the President has outlined a series of very ambitious legislative proposals that he will work with, in some cases, the Pentagon, and with Congress on on “don’t ask, don’t tell” and other things that he hopes will become law.

I personally found that comment oddly disturbing. “There are any number of interest groups that express their concerns and opinions. We respect those.” What is an “interest group”? In my mind, the Chamber of Commerce of Cincinnati, Ohio is an interest group. The pharmaceutical industry’s lobby (PHARMA) is an interest group. The NRA, the oil industry, the United Auto Workers are “interest groups.” But does the White House view the urgency of ensuring equal protection under the law as something that is only felt by “an interest group”?

It doesn’t take many letters to add “special” to “interest group” on your way to completely marginalizing the estimated 30 million Americans who are LGBT — and, very importantly, the 162 million or so others who agree with them. Perhaps that’s the underlying problem. Even though President Obama is a former Constitutional Law professor, in some fundamental way he still views constitutionally guaranteed equal protection under the law for all Americans — including LGBT Americans — as a “special interest,” just like the myriad other interest groups that constantly lobby Congress.

Public opinion polls consistently show a large majority of Americans (straight, gay, and in-between) favor either the right to civil unions or to marriage for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation: usually, something like 64%* whereas those opposing any legal recognition of the relationships of same-sex partners has rarely risen above 30%. Does the vast majority of Americans constitute a “special interest group”?

I think that as long as the Congress and the White House think in that way, any progress toward full civil rights for all Americans will be halting, token, and incremental.

If we’re to have any chance of living a normal life — that is, of not having to undertake extreme hardship just to stay in the same country as our spouses — ALL of official Washington is going to have to “get” that.

Basic civil rights are fundamental and as such are (and of right ought to be) far above the daily wrangling of interest group politics.

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* http://www.angusreidstrategies.com/uploads/pages/pdfs/2009.05.11_SameSexUS.pdf; http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm

By the way, is the press doing its job?

Total time on NBC Nightly News tonight devoted to coverage of the president’s decision to extend some benefits to same-sex partners: 17.4 seconds
Total time devoted to coverage of the fly that the president swatted during a recent interview: 40 seconds.