No list of LGBT promises for 2012 election?

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
 (Blade photo by Michael Key)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday he doesn’t expect President Obama to issue a list of promises to the LGBT community as part of his re-election campaign as he did during the 2008 election season, according to the Washington Blade.


During a news conference, Carney made the remarks in response to a question from the Washington Blade on whether Obama would publish a list of objectives he wanted to achieve for the LGBT community during the second term of his administration.

“Well, I don’t anticipate reissuing a list,” Carney said. “I think his position on a number of issues has been clear and his accomplishments on a number of issues have been clear. So as is true with a number of the goals he set forward during his campaign and in the first two-plus years of his administration, he remains [committed to] those that are unfinished.”

Carney noted the president has been “saying a lot lately we still have a lot of work to do, and we’re not done yet” and maintained Obama “will remain committed to a number of policy objectives that haven’t been achieved yet.”

In 2008, Obama published an open letter to the LGBT community for the month of Pride listing the objectives he would advocate for on behalf of the LGBT community upon election.

Some promises in the letter have come to fruition. For example, then-Democratic presidential nominee Obama said he would “place the weight” of his administration behind passage of hate crimes protections legislation. Congress enacted such a statute in 2009 as part of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill. Additionally, Obama has signed legislation allowing for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, although certification implementing open service has yet to take place.

But other promises in the 2008 letter remain unfulfilled. Obama pledged to work to pass an Employment Non-Discrimination Act to provide protections in the U.S. workforce on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but Congress has yet to pass such a statute. The president also said he would seek complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, but the anti-gay law remains on the books.

Obama’s position on same-sex marriage has marginally changed since he issued the letter. In the missive, Obama says he believes civil unions “represent the best way to secure that equal treatment” for same-sex couples, stopping short of an endorsement for gay nuptials. The president has since suggested his position could evolve on the issue and that he’s wrestling with the idea of same-sex marriage. Advocates have been pressing Obama to issue an outright endorsement of marriage equality.

During the news conference, Carney said Obama remains committed to the outstanding promises to the LGBT that were made during the 2008 election.