Wednesday marked the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency, giving pundits, politicians and journalists inspiration to review and critique his performance.
The tradition stems from 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt was furiously passing bills to pull the country out of the Depression.
Since then, presidents have lauded and condemned the arbitrary time period.
After last year’s heated election, no one could have predicted what the current president would have to face: housing-market decline, rising unemployment, financial and auto-industry crises. Some crises were known challenges, like how to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without abandoning their citizens, and how to foster better relations within the Western Hemisphere. Others have been completely unexpected, like swine flu.
For the LGBT community, Obama has been the most visibly and openly supportive president ever: 35 appointments of LGBT staff (including nine requiring Senate approval), a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and expression and inclusion in economic-recovery outreach efforts.
The communication efforts have been particularly significant, especially after LGBT press criticized Obama for his lack of accessibility while he was a presidential candidate. This paper, in particular, chastised him for not speaking to local LGBT media for the majority of his campaign.
It seems he has remedied this, and then some.
In addition to having access — as in phone calls returned and press releases sent — the administration has actively included the LGBT community in outreach events, such as the Small Business Administration’s push to inform entrepreneurs about loans and the annual White House Egg Roll. This time, the community isn’t being accused of crashing the party — we were invited to the party.
This isn’t to say that Obama is perfect.
The administration has not made progress on several important issues, including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act, and passage of the federal antidiscrimination laws, immigration equality for same-sex couples or marriage equality.
But progress is coming. As we go to press, the House of Representatives just passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, by a vote of 249-175.
On Tuesday, the White House released a statement from the president supporting the legislation, and calling for passage in the House and Senate.
When the bill was passed in the last Congress, President Bush vetoed it.
Full equality for the LGBT community may not be reached in 100 days, but change is coming.