Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “Political Shifts on Gay Rights Are Lagging Behind Culture” (Political Memo, front page, June 28):

Since his election, President Obama has had unprecedented opportunities to lead and educate on civil rights for gay Americans. His response has been alternately silent, glib, clumsy, indifferent, condescending and cavalier. In his administration’s brief supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, the tone was antagonistic.

As a gay man and an American, I had hoped and expected that our first African-American president would champion a new era of liberty and justice for all. I was heartened by his courage in speaking on other complex and controversial issues, from race to abortion to religion.

It seems now that I was wrong; so I ask Mr. Obama, “What happens to a dream deferred?” He, better than any other president in our history, should know.

Jeff Ronci
Miami, June 28, 2009

Note from KBJ: The president believes, and has said many times, that marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. Hillary Clinton agrees.