Out Performer Wanda Sykes Featured at White House Correspondents Dinner; Who Says Obama Is Not on Our Side?

Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspendents Dinner (Photo/ Brendan Smialowski)

There have been many gay activists, gay bloggers, and others who have been complaining that President Obama hasn’t done enough or said enough about gay issues during his first 100 days in office. It seems to me that if we have entrusted this man to lead the country through these difficult times, we need to give him a little slack when it comes to social issues.

But if anyone has any doubt about whether President Obama is sympathetic to gay people and their causes, he should be aware who was featured entertainment at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night–and I did say featured entertainment–none other than out gay actor and comedian, Wanda Sykes.

There may have been other out entertainers invited to perform at White House events by past administrations, but nobody so “out there” as Wanda Sykes, who came out publicly last November.

I love watching Wanda Sykes perform; she is one of the funniest people around these days, but her humor can be both gut-busting and raw-nerve-hitting. Anyone can be the butt of her jokes, and she doesn’t mince words. Her performance at the dinner roasted not only the President and some from his administration but also took aim at former President Bush and other Republicans, in particular, Rush Limbaugh, former Vice President Cheney, and Sarah Palin.

If you didn’t get a chance to see Wanda’s out performance, take a look here. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as you’ll see the President enjoying it when you watch.

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Part 2:

Typical Small-Minded Thinking and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Get Kansas National Guard Member Kicked Out of the Military

Amy Brian During Active Duty (Photo-CJOnline)

This morning when I read about the Kansas National Guard discharging one of its members for being gay based on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, I was once again launched into the “push-pull” relationship that I have had for a long tim2  with my home state, Kansas, and some of its people. (Though I have lived in Texas for many years and probably will continue to do so, I never have considered myself a Texan, nor do I care to.)

Kansas always tugs at me because it holds so many things that are dear to me: my family, for sure; old schoolmates, with whom close friendships are easily rekindled after many years without contact; a rich history, which started prior to but was molded by the Civil War; and, not least of all, the land itself, where in late spring, section after section of waving green wheat can be seen from a passenger seat of an airliner coming in for a landing, a sight that cannot be fully appreciated down on the ground.

Kansas is the kind of place where a neighbor roto-tills your garden plot out of sheer goodness because he knows that, otherwise, you’d be doing all that digging by hand with a garden fork. Kansas is the kind of place where the cashier at the magazine counter in the Wichita Airport chats with you and asks you if you’re looking for anything else, not to push sales, but just because she’s truly interested. It’s small and generally has a slower pace of life, so people have time to be kind and helpful.

Some of the actions and beliefs push me away, though, because this slower pace of life leads to a great deal of “small-thinking”. People with too much time on their hands and no respect for personal boundaries break into your house, not to steal anything, but just out of curiosity of knowing what kind of stuff you have and what kinds of magazines you might be reading, or drive by the capital city’s only gay bar to try to figure out whose cars are parked outside and what they might do with that information.

Therefore, it’s no surprise to hear that someone “had it in for” Amy Brian, a member of the Kansas National Guard, who had served honorably in Iraq. A co-worker at her civilian job reported her to the Kansas Adjutant General for kissing a woman at Wal-Mart. Subsequently, she lost her regular job, was kicked out of the guard because of the DODT policy, and lost all of her benefits from having served her country in the military. Read the Topeka Capitol-Journal’s article by Jan Biles; it’s well worth it. If you read the comments attached to the article, you’ll get an idea about this “smallness” (both the positive and the negative) to which I have been referring. You can also read Amy’s own comment on the thread under “ProudTBMe” at 6:45 AM, Feb. 9th.

Along with all the advantages that Kansas has of being a place where life is slower and people are kind, there’s another side, a side that includes Amy’s co-worker and other small-minded people, who not only want to “get in your business”, but want to control “your business”.