What can the progressive movement learn from the LGBT community? On the
fortieth anniversary of Stonewall there has been a good deal of
reflection and soul searching on the role of the struggle for gay rights
within the larger civil rights movement. Yesterday when Barack Obama met
with gay couples in the White House he said, “It’s not for me to tell
you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to
African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century
ago. We’ve been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time
this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good
feelings about the Obama administration.” That could be applied to a
number of issues, not only those affecting the LGBT community.

Richard Burns, Chief Operating Officer of the <a
href=”http://www.arcusfoundation.org/pages_2/home.cfm”>Arcus
Foundation, Naomi Clark of the Sylvia
Rivera Law Project, Richard Kim,
Associate Editor at The Nation, and independent journalist <a
href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-goldstein”>Nancy Goldstein
on the role of LGBT politics within the progressive movement.

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