On Monday President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation that declared June, 2009 Pride Month for GLBT citizens.  The headline gave me a sense of excitement when it came through to my email but that soon was dampened as I read further down his list of things he wants to see change for GLBT Americans.  In the first paragraph of his proclamation the very last sentence clearly states that LGBT pride month is to "commemorate the events of June 1969 [refering to Stonewall] and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans".  Really Mr. President?  Really? Well, that’s certainly interesting.  Further down in this proclamation Obama calls for federal recognition of civil unions for same sex couples.  Civil unions?  Doesn’t sound like “equal justice” to me.  In fact I think the term that describes that in the most flattering possible way would be “separate but equal”.  Plessy v. Fergusson (163 U.S. 537, 1896) was the Supreme Court ruling that set up a “separate but equal” system for black people in this country over a hundred years ago.  It was in 1954 in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (347 U.S. 483) before the Supreme Court finally overturned the constitutionality of a separate but equal government and society for blacks.  But now our own president, a black man himself, would have the audacity to suggest and support implementation of such a system?  I find it reprehensible and hypocritical.  And I hope that it is more than just the GLBT community that sees this.  He can start a proclamation with words that promote equality and yet finish with something entirely separate.  History has shown us that separate but equal is indeed nothing short of discrimination.  Yet our own “progressive” president chooses to perpetuate this line of thinking.

While I think it is wonderful that we as the GLBT community have a platform now recognized by the government in the form of a GLBT pride month, I think it is very telling for our society and indeed our system of government itself that discrimination even pervades the language being used to set us free.  Unless full MARRIAGE equality, including federal recognition, is won then we really and truly are just second class citizens that pay first class taxes.  Wake up Obama.