Yes, Let's Count Them

Gay activists are pretty ticked at Obama for what they believe is a betrayal of his campaign promises to move their issues to the forefront. Instead of curing what ails the gay community, he's pretty successfully shelved their issues. Frankly, I don't think he's pro-gay at all, but needed to appear so during the campaign to keep them on the reservation.

Remember, blacks voted against gay marriage 70-30 in California, and I would guess that black Christians, which includes Obama, voted against it in even larger margins. It's not exactly a stretch to think that Obama might actually be part of that large majority.

The administration has thrown them a couple of bones lately to try and calm them down (good luck with that). He extended some benefits (but not health care) to the partners of federal workers, and now the administration is looking to add gay issues to the census:

The White House said Thursday it was seeking ways to include same-sex marriages, unions and partnerships in 2010 Census data, the second time in a week the administration has signaled a policy change of interest to the gay community.

The administration has directed the Census Bureau to determine changes needed in tabulation software to allow for same-sex marriage data to be released early in 2011 with other detailed demographic information from the decennial count. The bureau historically hasn't released same-sex marriage data.

The gay community strongly supported President Barack Obama during the 2008 election. But some gay activists say they have been frustrated by what they see as his slow approach to rolling back discriminatory policies.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said "the administration continues to make progress on the president's longstanding commitment to promoting equality for [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] Americans."

This has the potential to backfire big time on the gay activists. They've been promoting wildly overstated percentages of gay Americans for decades, and should actual numbers come out of the census, it's likely the percentage of those self-identifying as gay will be significantly less than previously advertised. They could torpedo their political influence just like that.

Be careful what you wish for...you might get it.