In an article entitled “Wise Up Dustin Lance Black“ on the LGBTQ Nation website, Melanie Nathan, Blogger and Activist,  hits back with a scathing response to Dustin Lance Black’s threat to withdraw support for President Obama:

The moment I saw Dustin Lance Black’s headline in the Hollywood Reporter all my admiration came a-tumbling.

While one cannot disregard the work of the screenwriter turned activist and its impetus on marriage equality, his latest critique of President Obama, and worse yet its luminous abode engorges like an unwelcome cloud on a sunny day. As an activist in the community, I want to clearly disassociate myself from the ominous loom of Black’s threatening blur.

The headline and byline present a pompous lead into an arrogant read: “Hollywood & Politics: Dustin Lance Black Blames Obama and Romney for the Mess of Gay Marriage (Opinion) — by Dustin Lance Black.”

In his article, Black attempts to connect President Obama’s record on LGBT issues to the non-record and vacillation, not to mention the irrelevance at this time, of Mitt Romney. Black says “both candidates are “up in the air” on the equal rights issue.” This trite and ill timed analogy is not only inaccurate but an insult.

Black throws a crumb or two with his cryptic mention of the Department of Justice and the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” yet his stance fails to elucidate on so much more that indicates Obama’s attitude towards LGBTI rights, both here in the USA and internationally.

When, in the article, Black throws a reckless “but after all the hope and change LGBT people were promised four years ago, many are frustrated with Obama’s sluggish, self-described “evolution” on the issue of marriage equality,” I hear words out of context and in shallow meaningless void, words that indicate a misunderstanding of the milieu and politics.

Black is absolutely incorrect in his assertion that President Obama has yet to “evolve” on the issue of marriage equality, as he buys into the rhetoric that died when the Respect for Marriage Act was introduced last year by Senator Feinstein, as repeal legislation for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Soon thereafter, Obama indicated he would sign the legislation into law.

Notably, The Washington Post headline read, “Obama backs bill to repeal Defense of Marriage Act” — how much more evolving could one do than that?

Read the Full Article – Click Here