President Obama’s proposed budget and LGBT security

Earlier this week the White House announced some of its 2013 budget proposals that would provide “Security to the LGBT Community.”

In his address to Congress, President Obama made the following statement about economic security, “we are in a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get there.”

Such sentiments seem rather shallow from an administration that continued the Wall Street Bailout, passed a health care plan that will channel more public money into the private health care system, continued Bush tax policies that benefit the rich, implemented several foreign trade policies that will benefit corporations and not working people, maintained massive amounts of corporate welfare and increased the annual US military budget for the third year in a row.

The White House statement went on to say, “To construct an economy that is built to last while providing opportunity and security for the LGBT community and people living with HIV/AIDS, the 2013 Budget will:

Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Enforcement, Support Federal Employee Domestic Partner Benefits, Combat Hate Crimes, Support Equal Rights for Hospital Visitation, Support the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and Expand Investments in Prevention, Care, and Research, Expand the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, Support Housing Assistance for People Living with HIV/AIDS, Combat Violence and the Bullying of Children and Support the President’s Ambitious Goals to Address Global AIDS.

On first glance this list seems fairly progressive, but what are the real benefits of such proposals for the LGBT community?

The administration says it will support federal employee domestic partner benefits, which is certainly a benefit to the federal employees who identify as LGBT. The original legislation was proposed in 2007, with an amended version in November 2011. Therefore, despite three years in the White House, domestic partner benefits for federal employees has not been made a priority by this administration. In addition, considering that this is an election year, the likelihood that this issue will become law in 2012 is next to none.

The Obama administration says it will support equal rights for hospital visitation in this new announcement, but that is a policy that already exists. In November of 2010, “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued new rules for Medicare-and Medicaid-participating hospitals that protect patients’ right to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay, including a visitor who is a same-sex domestic partner.” Thus, the inclusion of this policy in the recent White House statement is a bit misleading since the right already exists.

On the matter of increasing funding for hate crimes prosecution, many see this as a commitment of support for the LGBT community. However, the hate crimes legislation has been coming under scrutiny for several years now from the more grassroots and radical sectors of the LGBT community. Groups like FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, Pink and Black and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project all argue that hate crimes legislation not only does not act as a deterrent, hate crimes legislation channels more public money into the criminal justice system, a system that these groups argue engage in systemic abuse of those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer. These claims are further substantiated in two excellent books that have been published in the passed year, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States and Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law.

The other main issue addressed by the Obama administration that would “support” the LGBT community was funding for HIV/AIDS. The administration states it will increase funding for HIV/AIDS projects, both domestically and internationally. Again, on face value this seems like a positive action on part of the administration, but the fact is that the amount of money they are talking about allocating for HIV/AIDS programs both domestically and internationally are grossly inadequate. In regards to expanding the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, the administration will add $67 million to last years budget. However, when put next to the amount of money the Obama administration will provide the state of Israel this year, $3 Billion, the $67 million seems rather miniscule.

At this point I can hear rumblings of, “these proposals are better than nothing,” or “they are better than what happened under the Bush administration.” I would respond yes to both. Yes, the actions of the Obama administration to LGBT concerns are better than nothing and they are better than what the Bush administration did. However, this should not prevent those of us who care about justice and equality to be content with what the current administration is doing. Why should we set the bar so low? Why is what we want based on what the power structure in this country is willing to do?

Imagine if this administration were to write a check to the LGBT community, a check that would alleviate all economic concerns and inequalities. Imagine if there was enough funding to do real HIV/AIDS prevention work, to fund anti-bullying efforts, provide domestic partner benefits for everyone, eliminate workplace discrimination and funding that would provide adequate housing for everyone who identified as LGBT. This is what we should be fighting for. This should be the goal. This should be where we set the bar for equality and justice for the LGBT community. Let us not be content with the crumbs the Obama administration throws at the LGBT community.

During the Wall Street Bailout we all heard the politicians say, “the banks are too big to let them fail.” What if we had an ethos in this country that said, “the lives of those in the LGBT community are too important to let them endure further injustice and inequality.”