Homophobic Stereotypes in Politics: The Obama Statement

This from the Obama campaign today on the LGBT community:

Part of the reason that we have had a faith outreach in our campaigns is precisely because I don't think the LGBT community or the Democratic Party is served by being hermetically sealed from the faith community and not in dialogue with a substantial portion of the electorate, even though we may disagree with them.

So people in the Obama campaign believe we are hermetically sealed from the faith community? Gee, uh, has anyone heard of Soulforce? Metropolitan Community Church? QueerDharma? Congregation Sh'Ar Zahav? I mean, there are queer congregations all over the country. Not to mention whole denominations in meltdown over whether we can be ordained — and I'm not only talking about the Episcopalians.

The very idea that queer people are not members of mainstream faith communities — or for that matter, highly present in the black church — is a gross ignorance at best. And such ignorance on the part of a national campaign of a domestic issue suggests that this organization isn't up to dealing with the complexities of international politics.

I urge all queer people of faith, all queer people who are members of faith communities to write the campaign and let him know that the only ones who are hermetically sealed are the candidate and his staff, living in a bubble that is disconnected from the lives of queer people across America.