Just as we lacked a strong political voice in the vein of Harvey Milk during the battle to defeat Prop 8, we also lack a voice on the national level to make the moral case for advancing LGBT civil rights. New York Times columnist Frank Rich holds Democrats feet to the fire for not having the courage to drive that message home:

… The Democrats do have the votes to advance the gay civil rights legislation Obama has promised to sign. And they have a serious responsibility to do so. Let’s not forget that “don’t ask” and DOMA both happened on Bill Clinton’s watch and with his approval. Indeed, in the 2008 campaign, Obama’s promise to repeal DOMA outright was a position meant to outflank Hillary Clinton, who favored only a partial revision.

So what’s stopping the Democrats from rectifying that legacy now? As Wolfson said to me last week, they lack “a towering national figure to make the moral case” for full gay civil rights. There’s no one of that stature in Congress now that Ted Kennedy has been sidelined by illness, and the president shows no signs so far of following the example of L.B.J., who championed black civil rights even though he knew it would cost his own party the South. When Obama invoked same-sex marriage in an innocuous joke at the White House correspondents’ dinner two weeks ago — he and his political partner, David Axelrod, went to Iowa to “make it official” — it seemed all the odder that he hasn’t engaged the issue substantively.

…

As [Evan] Wolfson reminds us in his book “Why Marriage Matters,” Dr. King addressed such dawdling in 1963. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait,’ ” King wrote. “It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ ”

There is a possibility the White House will find its “voice” on many issues (hopefully DADT in particular) this June which is Pride month. California representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview last week that the White House would be making an announcement on a number of LGBT issues, though declined to give specifics.

This past Saturday marked Singapore’s first pro-gay rights rally Pink Dot, celebrating equality and the freedom to love for ALL Singaporeans. Drawing a crowd of over a thousand, Pink Dot provided a “platform for individuals, organizations and businesses to identify themselves as advocates of a more inclusive, more loving Singapore.”

From a speaker at the event:

We are born alone. We go to our graves alone. But there is no reason why any of us should have to live alone in this life … I support the freedom to love because I believe in love. Too many of my gay friends have left these shores because of intolerance. Let’s make a change today. My father is here too today to support Pink Dot. He too wants to make a change. Everyone, in the words of the great Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.“

Watch this touching video from the event…

Also watch the amazing video promoting the event.

“Some people are afraid of change. Don’t let them take away what makes this country so great.” Watch “We the People”…

[youtube width=”480″ height=”295”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldn8p0sAm4I[/youtube]

Boy I love these guys… They get it.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal spoke eloquently today when he refused to co-sponsor legislation that would repeal Iowa’s newly decided marriage equality bill.

Minority leader Paul McKinley who offered the new legislation to ban gay marriage accused Gronstal of “pure obstruction,” while former state legislator Chuck Hurley, who is now president of the Iowa Family Policy Center had this to say:

“He is denying 2.1 million Iowans of voting age of the right to vote on an issue of great importance to 550,000 schoolchildren … Mike Gronstal needs to humble himself and listen to the people.”

Sorry, a little bit behind on the news today… A new job will do that to you.