Janet,

I enjoyed your blog post today. Thank you for sharing that classroom with us. You are a real leader for racial reconciliation and we learn from you.

I am neither gay nor black. I voted for Barack and I'm happy with his cabinet. But I am not happy about his choice of Rick Warren.

One of the pitfalls of the kind of campaign that Obama ran is that he incited and encouraged a "movement" of "change" that caused many people to read whatever they wanted to into Obama's policies and philosophies, since Obama has been guarded and vague about many of his policies.

The truth is that Obama is not "left" - he is "center" - and many of the people who fought for him and campaigned hard for him did not know that about him. He is not the "liberal" that McCain tried to make him out to be - Obama has always voted more conservatively than his Senate colleagues.

So, what we are seeing now is disillusionment. Many of the gays that fought hard for Obama are very disillusioned.

See, Warren has been "out front" in his fight against gay marriage. He rallied his entire mega-church in California to hit the streets and make it illegal for gays to legally marry. Many gays believe that Warren should stay out of their private life and they feel that his use of the "pulpit" to control their lives and to get into politics has been an invasion of their privacy.

Obama may have picked Warren because Warren is so powerful and can provide campaign money sources, but, the picking of Warren has crushed the hopes of many gay Americans.

Keep in mind that in your Culture and Diversity class, many of your students were bi-racial or involved in mixed race marriages. This would not have been possible 40 years ago, when it was illegal for whites to marry blacks. Now, they can talk about their "mixed" experience because their marriages are legal.

All gays want is that right.

I respect your experiences, Janet and am glad you shared them. Thank you.

Jerry J.

Janet, as a bi-racial (or tri-racial) person myself, I can attest that we need each other. It never ceases to amaze me how humans have a tendency to want to group with others of their own kind. This has always been so obvious to me. When I was in school, I never knew which segregated social circle to join - the Asians, the Hispanics or the African Americans, since I am all three. None really took me in completely. Yet, like you say, we need each other.

Wonderful post Janet. I agree with Obama's goals to reach out to people that he disagrees with, so I generally support his decision to let Warren do the invocation. I don't agree with many of Warren's views either, but he did allow Obama to speak in his church without censoring any of Barack's views on issues like abortion.

But if we allow Warren to do the invocation, maybe we should also press Obama to seat Warren next to some gay rights activists, to force him to interact with them and talk and listen to each other. In addition, perhaps Obama could also have a gay poet do a poem, as Maya Angelou did that wonderful poem in Clinton's inaugural. Do not exclude Warren, but put him in a position where he has a chance to dialogue with some of the gays and lesbians who are affected by his support of Proposition 8.

Two years ago I was in New Jersey for a National Federation of Democratic Women convention. Each evening, about 400 of us from all parts of the country and other countries as well, gathered to share a meal and listen to whom ever our keynote speaker was. Well, I had an opportunity to network, terrific... however I tend to get very emotional at times. Listening and sharing the discussions that evolved from one lady that claimed the waiter was ignoring her because she was African-American; naturally (always the curious one), I asked her to elaborate and share why she thought that was the case. I didn't pick up on the waiter thing, but her radar certainly did. Needless to say, for two evenings in a row, I decided to accompany people I did not know (repeat earlier parentheses) - well I can tell you from that experience, I learned a whole lot. I sat through these conversations, unable to finish my meal on both occasions because I could not stop crying, literally. The impact was surreal. I learned too much I think, because for a while I was disgusted with much of humankind. I also discovered that for me, being a quarter Native American, I never shared their burdens, but I felt their message in my very being. There has never been a difference in my eyes, we all of us have the same eyes, but oh how we see so differently. Nothing, angers me more than bigotry - in any sense, because it just does not make sense. We all want the same things and I feel a true sadness when I see or hear another speak otherwise. This is what I refer to as ignorance.

Hi Janet, I loved reading about your class, very important work.

I am disappointed in Obama's choosing Rick Warren to say a prayer at the inauguration. So many gay and lesbian people have had their hopes crushed by proposition 8, which Warren actively supported, and the message to them by this action is you don't matter to this administration. Supporters of prop 8 are now challenging 18,000 marriages in California. I can't really imagine the pain of having my marriage challenged by complete strangers.

If Obama wants to be inclusive then he needs to realize that marriage is a civil right in this country.

Thanks all for your comments. Angelo, I completely agree with you. I hope Obama takes the approach you suggest. I agree...I think Obama's approach is right...but I do hope that he brings everyone to the table so that each person has to "deal with" each other and begin to learn from and listen to each other.

Thanks Janet. Perhaps Warren could invite gay and lesbians or a gay Christian group like Soulforce (http://www.soulforce.org/) to his church for a forum to talk about each of their points of views. How do Evangelicals think of the institution of marriage? What does marriage means to gays and lesbians? How does a ban on gay marriage affect gays and lesbians? How has homophobia affected gays and lesbians? What have Evangelicals like Warren done to combat homophobia? What have been the experiences of gays and lesbians with Evangelicals? Getting a dialogue inside the church could get Evangelicals who are sympathetic to gay rights to get the courage to speak up.